Opposites Attract
by Laora
Summary: Just when they think things are starting to look up...their whole world comes crashing down. —- Very old story.
1. I

_**5/29/12:** Fair warning ____— this story is very, very old. I wrote it when I was fourteen, and...well...it's not my best XD;; I'm not going to go through and edit this story up to my current standards, because that would be a huge waste of effort, but I **am** planning on a story based on this within the near-ish future. Once I post that, I may or may not delete this one. I haven't decided yet. But, just...well...this story is old, and weird, and if you like the idea of it (and you want actual angst), I would watch out for my rewrite, tentatively entitled **Abandon All Hope**, coming (most likely) within a year! :)_

_Thanks so much for understanding :3_

_~Laura_

* * *

**I.**

Lily Evans sat in the armchair in the Gryffindor common room. She looked up, and across the room she saw James Potter and Sirius Black performing tricks, to the amusement of many younger students. Lily rolled her eyes. Those two boys…they would never pass their N.E.W.T.s! She thought that James, as Head Boy, would have more sense, but no—he was slacking off on his homework to amuse the other Gryffindors.

Not that it was a bad thing in and of itself—making them laugh an all—Voldemort was killing more and more people every month, but couldn't they do this on the weekends? It was interfering with her concentration.

Lily shook her long, red hair out of her eyes and packed her Arithmancy books back into her bag. She would finish it in the girls' dormitory; hopefully it would be quieter.

The crowd's laughter rang in her ears until she got to the top of the stairs and shut the door behind her. There was only one of her four roommates in their dormitory, for which Lily was extremely grateful. Sarah Kellison wouldn't bother her—she was as much of a bookworm as Lily was. That must have been why they were the best of friends.

"Hey, Lily," she said as greeting, "Potter getting to your head again?"

"Yeah, he and Black are showing off and I can't concentrate on Arithmancy. You'd think they'd be studying for our exams in June, but no, they decide to waste their time!"

"Well, they're boys, and boys are idiots. Potter's still trying to take you out to Hogsmeade?"

"Yeah," Lily said, laughing hollowly, "I'm not going to sink to his level, though."

"It'd be better than Pettigrew, though," Sarah said, smirking.

"At least Pettigrew has some semblance of manners," Lily said, scowling, "I'd rather take out Lupin…he's nice enough, compared to those idiots he calls friends…" and with that she sat down at her desk and pulled out her Arithmancy again, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get this essay finished by Monday."

"You know, I really should get started on it too," Sarah said thoughtfully, "Did you finish the Dugbog drawing for Kettleburn? We've got Care of Magical Creatures right after lunch tomorrow."

"Yeah, I did. Do you want it?"

"Er…yeah, actually, I do. I didn't quite finish taking notes on it in class on Tuesday."

Lily took her drawing out of her bag and handed it to Sarah. "You owe me, buddy."

"Yes, yes, I know I do," Sarah said impatiently, "Oh no, here comes Potter's fan club…"

Kelsi Tigeth and Lea Shuman walked in, giggling. "Lily, I still don't see why you won't take Potter out," Kelsi said, "He's head-over-heels in love with you, and he's drop-dead handsome!"

"Shut up, Kelsi," Lily snapped, "It's my choice whether I want to take him out or not, and personally, I think he's a jerk without a brain."

"Suit yourself," Lea said, just as the final member of their dormitory entered, Laurie Victonia.

"Hey, Laurie!" Sarah greeted. "We were just finishing up our Arithmancy homework."

"I need to finish that too," Laurie said cheerfully.

The three of them worked silently for a while—Lea and Kelsi having gone downstairs to fawn over the Marauders—until Sarah broke the silence. "You know, maybe if you take out Potter once, then never again, he'll stop bothering you."

"You know, that's an idea," Laurie said thoughtfully, "Lea and Kelsi will stop bothering you, too. You'll have a reason to hate him."

Lily was stunned. "Have you two gone insane? If I go out with him once, he'll never give up!"

"Wait a minute, let me explain my idea…" she leaned forward conspiratorially. Lily and Laurie leaned in closer to listen.

The plan was simple: Agree to go out with him after making him wait, then storm out of the place on a questionable comment. For the next week or so don't speak to him at all.

By the time she was finished, Sarah's face was flushed with excitement. "So what do you say? Just try it, if it doesn't work, we can brew Polyjuice Potion and I'll go on the rest of the dates for you."

Lily laughed. 'I don't think that'll be necessary. It's a perfect plan! When's the next Hogsmeade visit?"

"Saturday after next," Laurie said. "So you're gonna do it?"

"Yeah, I think I will," Lily said, her green eyes glowing with anticipation, "He'll ask me out tomorrow, and the million galleon question: 'Will he mess up his hair beforehand?' " Sarah and Laurie laughed, and they continued with their homework.

Lea and Kelsi came up some time later, complaining about Potter going to bed early. "I mean, he needs his sleep and all, but it's only 11:30! Usually he stays up later than that!"

"Will you two shut up? What does it matter to you when Potter turns in? He's probably trying to look nice for when he asks Lily out again tomorrow!" Sarah snapped at them, and then started laughing at the looks on their faces. "C'mon, he's asked her out once a week since third year! Tomorrow's Friday and he hasn't asked her out yet this week. It's logic. I'm sure you have about a teaspoon of it between the two of you, though, so we wouldn't expect you to understand."

Looking both shocked and hurt, Lea and Kelsi climbed into their beds and pulled the hangings around themselves.

"You know what? I'll finish the drawing tomorrow at lunch," Sarah said, "you know, before Potter asks and the sparks start to fly."

Lily laughed, accepted her drawing, and stowed her Arithmancy in her bag. "I'm going to bed too. Big day tomorrow!"


	2. II

**II.**

First thing on Friday morning was Potions. Professor Slughorn, the Potions Master, had a special soft spot for Lily, which she, Sarah, and Laurie often used to their advantage. It made Severus Snape and James Potter very angry—Snape because Slughorn was head of Slytherin, and Potter because he loved to be the center of attention.

When Slughorn handed out the assignment, Lily saw that it was for the Polyjuice Potion. 'Can't go back on your word now, Sarah," she said quietly, and they all giggled. They were to get started on it in that class, but since it required daily attendance, they were to brew it in their own dormitory.

"You must have it finished by December 20th for full marks," Slughorn told them, "you will bring a flask to me and drink it to make sure it is brewed properly. I will have antidotes on hand in case something goes wrong."

The Polyjuice Potion was complex, but not impossible. "Not nearly as hard as Love Potions," Lily whispered to Sarah, and they both had a hard time controlling their mirth. They had slipped Peter Pettigrew in their fourth year, and he had followed a very dismayed Lea Schuman around for the rest of the day.

Nobody ever found out, but many, Lea and Kelsi included, had pointed their finger accusingly in their direction. Smiling to herself once again, she got up with Sarah to collect the ingredients for the potion.

After Potions, they had History of Magic. This was the most boring class at Hogwarts, as Professor Binns, the translucent ghost teacher who had died in their second year, lectured the class for an hour and a half in an extremely boring voice. Lily and Sarah completely ignored Binns and worked out the finer points of the plan.

When the bell rang the two of them ran down the stairs to lunch for two reasons—they were hungry, and they wanted to put their plan into action.

Lily and Sarah sat nearer to Potter than they normally did-waiting for him to "pop the question". The better part of the lunch hour was uneventful, and Lily was beginning to worry that he had finally given up on her. Lily kept stealing nervous glances over at him while Sarah finished her Dugbog drawing. Finally, Potter, got up, walked over to Lily, and cleared his throat. Lily noted that he ran his hand though his hair during the five-second walk to her.

"Excuse me, Evans, would you care to go to Hogsmeade with me next Saturday?"

"Well, we're both going, right? I mean, you'd be going with your little buddies and I'd be going with Sarah and Laurie…"

"I mean," Potter said, rather impatiently, "Would you like to go to the Three Broomsticks with me on a date next Saturday?

"What would you do if I said yes?" Lily asked innocently, while Sarah held up her drawing to her face so Potter wouldn't see her laughing uncontrollably.

"I think I would have a heart attack and have to spend the rest of my life in St. Mungo's," Potter said angrily, "just answer me, will ya? I'm still hungry."

"Hm…I'll tell you at dinner. I'll think about it this time, in Kettleburn's class."

"Alright then, at dinner Evans," Potter said, "I'll keep you to your word."

"Just a little tip, _Potter_, I would give it greater thought if you called me by my first name. You do know what it is, don't you?"

"I know what it is! Fine, I'll call you _Lily_."

"OK, _James_," Lily said evenly, and Potter walked back to Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew looking marginally happier.

Sarah chortled, "Lily, that was _brilliant_!"

"Thanks," Lily said, grinning. "Now to wait until dinner. I want to see his reaction."

To Sarah's great surprise, Professor Kettleburn announced that her's was the best Dugbog drawing he had ever seen. "How'd I do it?" Sarah asked Lily and Laurie. "I can't draw to save my life…"

"Don't complain, Sarah!" Laurie said excitedly.

"I know," Sarah said, "I just don't know how I did it…"

"Maybe because you copied mine," Lily whispered, as Kettleburn began talking about the eating pattern of Dugbogs. They fell silent under his withering glare, and were forced to listen to the extremely dull lecture until dinner. Sarah, Lily, and Laurie all sped off to dinner, bracing themselves for what was to come. James had saved three spots next to himself and his friends, and he was looking pointedly at them over the heads of some first year Ravenclaws. They walked over, their heads held high, trying not to laugh at the grave looks on the boys' faces.

Lily sat next to Potter, Sarah sat across from her, next to Black, and Laurie sat on the other side of Sarah. They immediately grabbed whatever was in reach and began to pile it on top of their plates. They had just started to eat when Potter, who looked paler than usual, asked, "Well?"

Lily held up a hand and waited until she swallowed her food. "Let me eat first, _James_. Where are your manners?"

James, thoroughly disgruntled, began to eat as well, but with neither his usual gusto nor the girls'.

Lily took a long time to finish her meal. Finally, Potter had apparently had enough. He sprang up from his seat and told Lily, "C'mon, Lily, tell me!"

The rest of the Great Hall was chatting animatedly, not knowing what was going on. Lily looked around and finally said, "I'll go."

Potter promptly fell to the ground with a crash, out cold. The Gryffindor table became very quiet. Then the Hufflepuffs, then the Ravenclaws, and finally the Slytherins all went silent, wondering what had made the crash. Professor Dumbledore looked over at the Gryffindor table, and Lily was clearly visible, looking guilty.

"You six, would you follow me, please? You too, Minerva," he began to leave the Hall, then said, "Oh, Horace, would you bring Mr. Potter to the Hospital Wing please?"

He beckoned to the six students and they followed him out of the hall, every student's eyes watching them. Lily, Sarah, and Laurie were all trying to suppress giggles, and were being rather unsuccessful. McGonagall gave them a stern look, however, and they fell silent.

They climbed stair after stair, and somehow the eight of them found themselves in front of a large stone gargoyle. "Licorice wand," Dumbledore declared, and the gargoyle leapt aside. They walked up a flight of stairs, and found themselves in Lily assumed what must be Dumbledore's study.

Dumbledore conjured seven chairs and gestured for them to sit. "What happened to Mr. Potter?" he directed at Lily. She felt her face burn.

"I just answered his question…he was practically forcing me to…"

"And what was the question?" McGonagall asked sharply.

"Whether I would go to Hogsmeade with him next Saturday."

"Professor, he's asked her out once a week ever since third year," Sarah interjected helpfully.

"And your answer, Miss Evans, has always been…?"

"No. But I decided that maybe if I went out with him once and then dumped him, he'd stop asking," Lily said, as if it made the most sense in the world.

"So you said yes?" McGonagall asked, shocked.

"I thought that maybe he'd quit if I had a true reason not to like him."

Pettigrew, Black, and Lupin were all staring at Lily as if she had smacked them each in the face.

"And," Lily continued, "If any of you three," she pointed at them, "tell Potter, I will personally hex you into next week!"

"Now, there won't be any need for that!" McGonagall cried, "Albus, you won't let her…you most certainly…"

"I think," Dumbledore said, "that it is a fine idea that Miss Evans has come up with. Perhaps without Mr. Potter harassing her, she will be able to study for her final exams in peace."

McGonagall was spluttering incoherently at Dumbledore. "But if she hurts…if she attacks…" her eyes roamed to the robe pocket where she knew Lily kept her wand. Lily was famous at Hogwarts for her spellwork.

"I won't hurt Potter…physically. The worst he'll get out of this'll be a broken heart."

"Very well, you three ladies may go. You three," he looked at the boys, "will stay a while longer."

Lily, Sarah, and Laurie nodded, got up, and left the study, closing the door behind them. However, they did not go down the staircase. They stayed at the door, their ears pressed against it.

"You cannot tell Mr. Potter about this," Dumbledore was saying, "Miss Evans seems to have this planned out quite nicely."

"But, Professor!" Black said, "James needs to know! What if Evans does something to him?"

"I trust Miss Evans not to do anything rash. She does have a head on her shoulders, that one."

"Yeah, but she _hates _James! You should see her usually—in the common room—she's always yelling at him for some reason or another!"

"Well, most of the time, he deserves it," Lupin said fairly.

"Like heck he does!" Lily whispered to her friends.

"That is true, Mr. Lupin. You look a bit peakish-are you well?"

"The full moon's on Tuesday, Professor," Lupin answered.

Lily, Sarah, and Laurie stared at each other, amazed. "Lupin's a _werewolf_?" Sarah mouthed. Of course, that would explain his monthly absences, and their whole Defense Against the Dark Arts class was trying to figure out why his Boggart changed into a crystal ball. Was it actually a full moon?

"If that was any of those four but Lupin, I'd tell everyone. But Lupin…he's all right. Not horribly mean or nasty like the other three are.".

To their horror, it seemed like they had finished their conversation, because they heard the scraping of chairs on wood and feet walking towards them. They sprinted down the steps and into the nearest girls' bathroom, where the boys could not interrupt them. Unfortunately, that bathroom happened to contain Moaning Myrtle, a ghost who had been killed some thirty years previously by a pair of "great, big, yellow eyes." She was always sobbing for some reason or another, and that day was no exception.

"Myrtle?" Sarah asked tentatively, "Are you all right?"

"Do you really care? Or are you just trying to insult me? Nobody cares about ugly, spotty, Moaning Myrtle!"

"We care!" Lily said indignantly, "We wouldn't ask you if we didn't! We're not like those Slytherin girls who go around insulting people! We Gryffindors are better than that!"

However, instead of calming Myrtle, it seemed to hurt her further. "Fine, just rub it in, how you lot are in Gryffindor! I always wanted to be in that house, but no, the stupid hat stuck me in Hufflepuff! I was angry at that thing for four years before…"

"You died?" Laurie said, trying to be helpful, but instead Myrtle swooped down upon them

"You don't need to say it! We all knew perfectly well what I meant!" she started sobbing again, and floated away.

"A little touchy, isn't she?" Sarah asked conversationally, as they walked back to the common room. "If I died when I was fifteen I wouldn't become a ghost…imagine being stuck at that age for eons and eons…"

"I know what you mean," Lily said, "I wouldn't become a ghost anyhow, even if I got killed by Death Eaters in a few years and I had to leave my kids behind…"

"Don't talk like that, Lily!" Sarah told her sternly, "You're not going to die young; you're going to watch your children grow up and come here, then you're going to have lots of little grandchildren, all with red hair and green eyes!"

Lily laughed and sat down in the best armchair by the fire. "I certainly hope I can trust you, Sarah. I don't want to die young."

Just then Pettigrew, Black, and Lupin all crawled in through the portrait hole, followed closely by a very dazed Potter. He did not go to the table where his friends were sitting, but instead made a beeline for Lily. As soon as he was next to his chair, he blurted, "You'll seriously go to Hogsmeade with me next Saturday?"

The common room went very quiet. There were whistles and catcalls from a few boys, but the rest stayed silent, watching them.

"Yeah, I will. Just try to behave yourself, _James_."

Potter nodded and went to sit with his friends, still dazed-looking. The rest of the Gryffindors were staring at Lily, open-mouthed. Lily Evans, the girl who had sworn to hate James Potter for all eternity, had just agreed to _go out with him_?


	3. III

**III.**

The next day, Lily noticed that Potter seemed very distant with everyone but his three closest friends. He wasn't in the thick of everything that night in the common room, and went to bed unusually early—10:30.

Lily walked over to his friends, worried. "Is James all right?"

"Yeah, he's just worried about next Saturday," Black started.

"You didn't tell him!" Lily exclaimed, "I was serious, I'll hex you into oblivion if…"

"We didn't tell him,' Lupin said hurriedly, "He really cares about you, you know. He wants to make sure everything is perfect. He's stressing about everything. I think it would be cruel to botch it up like you're planning to do."

Lily was surprised. "He…he really cares about me?"

"Well, of course he does, he wouldn't be this persistent if he didn't, now would he?" Lupin explained patiently. On closer inspection, Lupin did look a bit care-worn. How long had he been a werewolf? Was it recent, or had Lily not noticed how tired and sick he looked once a month?

"Ok," she said uncomfortably after a few moments. "Thanks."

She walked back to Sarah and Laurie, doing Transfiguration by the fire. "You guys, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew said that Potter really does care about me. They said that he's going to great lengths to make our date perfect."

Sarah and Laurie looked up from their homework, shocked. "You're joking." Sarah said. "I thought he just wanted you because you're…well…"

"Pretty and smart, yeah. But I think… you guys, I think he loves me as Lily Evans, not that pretty girl over there that straight O's on her O.W.L.s!"

"So what you're getting at is…?" Laurie asked.

"We shouldn't pull the prank. If he's serious, I don't want to completely kill him. I think he'll get much worse than a broken heart—he might go insane if I got his hopes up and then blew him off…"

"Hm…" Sarah said thoughtfully, "You can still do it, I suppose, if he really _does_ make a comment that you don't like…"

"Yeah, but still, I don't want to murder him…" Lily said, not convinced.

"Let's just wait until Saturday and see what happens," offered Laurie.

"Yeah, let's," Lily said.

* * *

The next week passed uneventfully, though the three girls noticed that Lupin was gone on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and even more strangely, his friends were gone all night after dinner on Tuesday as well. Lily thought back, and she discovered that whenever Lupin was gone, his friends were gone for a night as well. Why had she never noticed their absences before?

"Sarah?" Lily asked suddenly, "Where do you think Lupin's friends go when he…leaves?"

Sarah cocked her head. "Dunno. Maybe you can ask them on Saturday."

"Yeah, I'll ask him then. Maybe we'll figure out how they got those stupid nicknames, 'Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs' too."

Lily woke up on Saturday morning, her heart rate unusually fast. It took her a moment to remember why she was so nervous. When she remembered, it felt like it slapped her in the face. Today was the day Potter was taking her out. Today was the day…

She might break his heart forever.

Just thinking about it gave her a headache. She woke up Sarah and Laurie; they got dressed, and went down to breakfast together. Potter was already there. His hair showed signs of gel, but it was just as unruly as always. He was obviously extremely self-conscious about it; he kept trying to flatten it and he was shooting furtive glances down the table at Lily.

Lily tried to look at ease, but was completely unsuccessful. She could hardly eat anything at all, and Sarah and Laurie practically had to shove the food down her throat.

They left into the Entrance Hall, ashen-faced. Filch checked them off of the list of Hogsmeade-goers, and they set off across the lawn to Hogsmeade village.

"I can't see Potter or his friends anywhere!" Lily said, dismayed, "Do you think they ditched us?"

"No, Potter looked like he tried to tame his hair this morning. He wouldn't do that for nothing."

"But where are they?"

As is on cue, Potter and his friends emerged from Honeydukes. The girls gaped at them.

"How'd you get in there?" Lily asked.

"Secret passageway. Let's go to the Three Broomsticks then." Potter said shortly. Not convinced, the three girls followed. They went up to the counter and ordered butterbeers, and then sat down in a booth-the girls on one side, the boys on the other.

"So," Lily said casually, "we missed you guys on Tuesday. Where were you?"

The boys exchanged looks. Lupin said after a second's hesitation, "I wasn't feeling well, and they came with me to be sure I was all right."

"I see. And you don't feel well for precisely one night a month, every month?"

Lupin paled considerably.

"We figured it out. We won't tell anyone, though. Is that what Snape's been hinting about all this time?"

"Yeah, last year Sirius decided to tell him that if he went down to the Whomping Willow, he'd get a huge surprise, so he went down, and met…me." Lupin said, glaring at Sirius. "James pulled him out just in time, otherwise Snape would've been bitten. I would never have been able to live with myself."

"But," Sarah said, "That still doesn't explain where your friends go whenever you're gone!"

"Er…" Potter began.

"I'm not really sure that we can tell you," Black said quickly. Lily glared at him.

"You have to swear you won't tell anyone," Lupin said in an undertone. The girls nodded slowly. "On your lives, you'll keep our biggest secret?" They nodded again. Potter took a deep breath.

"We're unregistered Animagi."

He received three blank stares. "Did I hear correctly?" Sarah said after a moment.

"Yes," Black said, now speaking very quickly and quietly. "Werewolves only attack humans, so we learned how to transform so we can keep him company on full moons."

The girls still stared at them, at a loss for words. Finally, Laurie was able to use her voice again. "How?"

"It took us three years, from second to fifth. I'm a stag, Sirius is a dog, and Peter's a rat."

Sarah nodded slowly. "So that's where you got your nicknames?" The Marauders nodded.

"You know, you're missed in the Gryffindor common room. Everyone wants to know where you are."

"They do?" Black asked, thunderstruck. "What if they go looking for us, or…"

"Relax, the whole staff knows about me." Lupin said.

"But," Pettigrew squeaked, speaking for the first time, "our disappearances won't go unnoticed forever! Just because we've done it for two years doesn't mean that we'll make it through the rest of this year without being caught!"

"Does anyone else know?" Sarah asked.

"Nope, just us, and you guys," Potter said, puffing out his chest, "my parents don't even know!'

"Impressive!" Sarah said, grinning evilly, "I didn't know you guys had the brainpower…"

"Watch it," Black said warningly, but Sarah just giggled uproariously.

"Must be a boy thing," Lily whispered to Sarah, who laughed harder than ever.

"So," Potter said loudly, "enough about us. Let us ask the questions."


	4. IV

**IV.**

"Shoot then, Mister High-And-Mighty," Lily said jokingly.

"Where do you three disappear to every Saturday night at precisely seven-thirty?"

Lily's mouth dropped open. "What…how…"

"Our map. Long story. Anyways, where do you go?"

"Map?" Sarah asked, intrigued, "What map?"

James sighed resignedly and pulled out a blank piece of folded parchment. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said and tapped the parchment with his wand.

To the girls' amazement, ink started appearing on the parchment, eventually forming an exact replica of Hogwarts—except for two details. There were corridors Lily had never seen before on the map, and there were many different dots moving around it, all labeled with names.

"Where did you get that?" Laurie asked.

""We didn't get it, we made it!" Black said indignantly. "Perfected it in our fifth year. Here…" he tapped the map with his wand again. "Mischief managed." Instantly the ink vanished, leaving it just as blank and innocent as it was before. "Say who you are and a comment about it while tapping it with your wand."

Mystified, Lily pulled out her wand, tapped the parchment, and said, "I, Lily Evans, believe that this is bloody brilliant!"

Instantly, writing appeared on the parchment. The girls leaned in to read it.

"_Mr. Moony would like to present his compliments to Miss Evans, and hopes for her sake that she goes out with Mr. Prongs, otherwise his already overlarge head may explode."_

"_Mr. Prongs would like to thank Miss Evans for her compliment, and would like to ask her again, WILL YOU GO OUT WITH ME?"_

"_Mr. Padfoot would like to take the time to properly thank Miss Evans for her compliments, but currently he is attempting to get Mr Prongs' attention back to McGonagall to refrain from receiving detention._

"_And finally, Mr. Wormtail would simply like to thank Miss Evans, not for the compliment, but for knocking down Messers Prongs and Padfoot, otherwise both their overlarge heads would explode. Except there would be no brains to clean up."_

Lily, grinning broadly, looked up at the four boys, who were looking at her expectantly. "This map is brilliant! Will the comments work in later years if you, say, give it to your kids or something?"

"We're not sure, but they should," Lupin said.

"Now, nice try getting us off track, but I still want to know where you guys go every Saturday night. We can't even find you on our ingenious map! You disappear!" Potter said.

"Well, we go to the Room of Requirement…" Lily said, and then, "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

"The _what_?"

"The Room of Requirement, you didn't know about it?" Sarah asked. "Seventh floor, across the hall from that tapestry of that weirdo getting beaten up by trolls. I'd think you'd know about it, I've never seen a few of these hallways…"

"That's because they're secret passageways." Black said patiently, "What's with this Room of Requirement, though? There's just an empty wall across from that tapestry…"

"You need to pace in front of the wall three times, thinking about what you want the room to become."

"Wicked," Potter and Black said.

"And you use it for…?" Lupin asked.

"Whatever we need. Usually it's a spa or something, but if we've got exams, a library or study area." Lily said.

Potter and his friends were staring, open-mouthed, at the girls. Lily felt a sense of pride course through her—they knew something about Hogwarts the _Hogwarts Marauders_ didn't!"

"Well, we're just going to have to update the map then," Lupin said briskly.

"Thank you, girls, that was enlightening," Potter said happily. "Can you bring us to this Room of Requirement some time?"

"I suppose, not tonight, though," Sarah said.

"Oh, fine," Black said, pouting.

"Will you three come with me next Hogsmeade weekend too?"

"I suppose," Sarah and Lily said at the same time, and then they burst into a fit of giggles. The boys, completely bewildered, stared at them. "Sorry," they said in unison again, and then collapsed, laughing their heads off.

Black was looking at them as if they thought he might have cracked; when the girls finally stopped laughing, he had moved as far away from them as the booth would allow.

"Sorry about that," said Laurie, grinning.

"It's ok," Lupin said, still looking warily at them.

"So, we'll see you later?" Lily said, getting up. "I never thought I'd say this, but that was enjoyable!"

He turned slightly pink. "Any time, Lily."

The seven of them left--the boys to Zonko's, and the girls to Honeyduke's.

"Can you believe it?" Lily asked her friends, "What those four have been doing the past seven years…that map is _amazing_…"

"I know! And to think that you used to hate his guts a week ago! McGonagall'll _die_ when she finds out!" Laurie said, laughing.

"Yeah, well, opposites attract, I suppose," Lily said, "when we were in first year, I thought he was all handsome and everything, but he was always teasing me so I figured he was an immature prat. I guess he really did like me, Mum said that's how boys express love."

"Really?" Sarah asked, confused. "I'll never understand boys…_never_…"

"Neither will I," Lily laughed, and then bent over some sugar quills, "Look at these, they'll last through an entire class!"

The three of them entertained themselves by imagining what Lily could give her sister to humiliate her. They ruled out Acid Pops-"she'll _kill _me"-and cockroach clusters ("gross!"), and finally decided on Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, hoping that they got a package with tons of gross flavors.

They picked out their own purchases, and left, their pockets considerably lighter.

They went down the road to Zonko's to buy some dungbombs and stink pellets—"We can be trouble too!"—and then went back to Hogwarts at about four in the afternoon.

They went up to their dormitory to drop off their purchases and add the lacewing flies to their Polyjuice Potion ("Sarah, don't worry about going on the dates, I don't mind!") and then went back down to the common room to chat and do homework.

James and his friends came in at the same time as they came downstairs, and looked at them incredulously as they pulled out their Charms essays. "Why are you doing that _now_?" he asked, "It's Saturday!"

"Exactly, so we get it finished now so we don't have to cram like _some_ boy I'm going out with,"

James looked confused for a moment, and then laughed. "So I'm officially considered your boyfriend?"

"Yeah, but that can change quite easily," Lily warned him, "If you do anything that insults me in the slightest…"

James rolled his eyes, "I'd never do that intentionally."

"Really."

"No, seriously, I'll try!" James said defensively.

As he left for the boy's dormitory to drop off his shopping bags, Lily said to her friends, "I'll believe it when I see it."


	5. V

**V.**

The rest of term passed uneventfully enough, aside from Kelsi Tigeth's Polyjuice Potion exploding in their dormitory while she tried to add the boomslang skin. Laurie, Sarah, and Lily laughed uproarishly while Lea and Kelsi, scowling, attempted to clean it up.

On the last day of term, December 20, they had Potions first thing. Professor Slughorn asked them to come forward to drink their potions. Laurie, Lily, and Sarah had all swapped hairs, and Slughorn said that all their potions were brilliant. James had somehow gotten one of Lily's hairs and promptly transformed into her. Black's and Lupin's potions worked well, but when Pettigrew drank his, he began growing antlers and hooves, and while the class laughed, he transformed into a stag right before their eyes-except not quite. He still could stand on his feet, and he still could talk, but instead of another person stood a stag at the front of the class—a stag in Gryffindor robes blushing furiously.

"Oh dear…" Slughorn said, "this'll take some time in the Hospital Wing, I think…and how on earth did you get a stag hair? Incredible! Evans, I mean Potter, please lead Pettigrew up to Madame Tramel. I do wonder where Poppy disappeared to…"

As soon as the dungeon door slammed shut, the class went into hysterics. "How did he get a stag hair, though?" asked Kristin Heidianos, disguised as her friend, Heather Castlebret, "I've never seen a stag at Hogwarts…" her potion wore off and she turned back into herself.

"I dunno, but that was hilarious!" Laurie said, winking at Lily and Sarah. "How long do you reckon he'll be in the Hospital Wing?"

"I'd bet at least a month," Sarah said, "the potion isn't for animal transformations." She transformed back into Lily, and within a minute, the other three transformed back as well.

The bell rang, and the rest of the day passed without incident. Lily, Sarah, and Laurie all went down to dinner talking about what they were going to do over break. Laurie was going skiing in the Alps with her Muggle mother, and Sarah was going to visit her grandparents in America. Lily, however, was staying at home for a quiet Christmas, much to James' happiness. They had discovered in their first year that they lived in the same town—Reading—which was only a short ways away from King's Cross.

Much to Lily's embarrassment, James escorted her onto the train the next morning, and then insisted that the seven of them share a compartment after they held the brief prefect meeting. Pettigrew still had antlers and hooves, so many of the younger students pointed and laughed. To save him the embarrassment, James eventually had to lend him his—

'Invisibility Cloak?" Sarah asked, shocked, "Where'd you get one of those?"

"My dad had one. He gave it to me first year as a Christmas present." James explained.

"Wow…" Lily breathed, staring at the "empty" seat that she knew held Pettigrew, "your dad must be filthy rich to get a hold of one of those…" Pettigrew took the cloak off.

"Peter, what'll your parents say when they see you?" Laurie asked conversationally.

"Yeah, we were wondering the same thing," came an oily voice. James and Sirius spun around toward the door so fast Lily heard their necks crick.

"Snivellus," Sirius breathed.

'Hey, oil head! Why don't you stick your over-large noses into your own business? Like maybe washing your hair? I'd personally rather have antlers than hair like yours…" James said rather rudely.

"Shut up," Snape said smoothly. His friends snickered behind him. "We were just wondering how poor Antler-Head was doing…"

James turned bright red, but from anger for Peter or anger from being insulted himself without being able to say anything, Lily couldn't tell. "Well, _Oil-Head, Antler-Head _is doing very well. Now, leave, or we'll make you. You don't want to have Lily Evans turn her wand on you…"

Even though she wouldn't hex them unless provoked, Lily pulled out her wand for effect. The Slytherins looked unfazed, but their eyes kept darting towards her wand.

"Why would we have to worry about a Mudblood attacking us?" Snape said scathingly.

"TAKE THAT BACK!"

"Dear, dear, I do seem to have touched a nerve," Snape said conversationally, "Imagine that, defending a Mudblood…"

That was all it took. Lily cried "_Avifors!_", James fired a Confundus Curse, Laurie and Remus both sent Full-Body Binds, Sarah and Black yelled, "_Silencio!_", and Pettigrew squeaked, "_Impedimenta!_"

Snape, surprise all over his face, flew backwards out of the compartment and into the opposite wall in the hallway. Unable to move, disoriented, and with giant bogeys flying over his face, the Slytherin was helpless. His friends had long since run off, their hands over their heads. The Gryffindors simply laughed, shut the door, and continued as if nothing had happened.

"Well," Pettigrew said in his unnaturally high voice, "they won't be too pleased, but, I mean, I just took a hair off of one of James' robes in the dormitory and figured it was a human hair."

The other six laughed, and the rest of the trip was uneventful. They spent most of it playing an Exploding Snap tournament, in which Sirius won spectacularly in the final round against Lily.

"That," Lily said, patting her singed eyebrows, "was _awesome_."

"Yeah, it was! Great game, Lily," Sirius said, extending his hand. Lily shook it.

As the seven of them got off of the train, they noticed that Snape was nowhere to be found. "Probably saved by some Prefect," Sirius muttered, "Prongs, I still have _no _idea how you became Head Boy…"

"Neither do I, but it's fun to flaunt power," James said cheerfully. Lily smacked him as they went through the barrier, followed closely by their friends.

"See you five in January!" Lily called after their retreating backs. They turned and waved before going off to find their parents. Lily turned to her parents and Petunia. "Hey, guys!" she said cheerfully.

Her parents hugged her tightly, but Petunia merely scowled and turned to James. "Who are you?" she asked him rudely.

"I," James declared nobly, "am James Isaac Potter, Lily's boyfriend."

Lily snorted. "C'mon, James, don't be such the high-and-mighty type. Peter was right; I need to deflate your head a bit more."

James blushed. "Mum, dad," Lily continued to her parents, "James lives in Reading too—just two blocks down from us!"

"Isn't he that 'Potter' you're always saying is an idiot? Asks you out every day?" her father asked, looking James up and down.

It was Lily's turn to blush, "I went out to the village with him a few weeks ago, and he isn't nearly as bad as I thought he was."

"Oh, thanks, Lily, that makes me feel _loads _better." James said, blushing even more, "I've gotta go and find my parents, I'll see you all later?"

"Bye!" Lily called cheerfully.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Petunia rounded on her older sister. "What is with you?" she shrieked in her face, "He thinks he's a gift to the world! His head is up in the clouds!"

"Oh c'mon, Petunia, you haven't known him five minutes! Give him a chance!" Lily implored her sister as they walked to their car.

"Petunia, calm down," their mother told her sternly.

Petunia sulked for the ten-minute drive to Reading, and then stomped up to her room upon arrival. Lily dropped her trunk off in her bedroom and made to go downstairs; however, Petunia stepped in front of her and glared daggers.

"I want some questions answered. Not later. _Now_." Petunia spat at Lily. Confused, Lily followed her down the hall to Petunia's bedroom.

"Well?" Lily asked politely after a minute's silence.

"Strange things have been happening all around Britain…hurricanes, floods, earthquakes…the Prime Minister's just putting it down to natural disasters, but I know better. Hurricanes materializing miles away from any ocean, floods in the middle of a drought…it's got something to do with your kind, I'm sure of it!" Petunia finished her rant and took a breath.

"I won't deny that wizards and witches are causing these disasters. The Minister's doing all he can to stop Voldemort and his Death Eaters and send them to Azkaban, but…" she stopped as Petunia's face turned from anger to confusion, "Ok, the Minister's the Minister of Magic, our equivalent of the Prime Minister. Voldemort is the resident Dark Lord whose favorite pastime is killing people. Death Eaters are his followers, and Azkaban is the wizard prison. Make sense?" Petunia scowled at her, which Lily took as a "yes". "Well, anyways, there hasn't been much Fudge can do, I mean, Voldemort almost never shows himself, and his Death Eaters kill people without hesitation. Almost nobody comes out of a confrontation with any of them alive."

Petunia was looking, horror-struck, at Lily. "So there's an insane mass-murderer running around at this moment?"

"Yeah, there is."

"Lily! Petunia! Dinner!' their mother called upstairs. Petunia sent Lily a scathing look before departing to the kitchen. Lily followed soon after.

Dinner was a rather silent affair, as Lily and Petunia were not speaking. Just as they were cleaning away the dishes, a tawny owl flew through the window and landed on Lily's shoulder. She opened the letter, and it said,

"_Lily, I need you to meet me at the corner of my street. Not in half an hour—now. Please, it's very important. –James"_

Lily, wondering what in the world could be so important that he needed to inform her of after only two hours of being apart, told her parents that she was going out and that she would be back. She then grabbed her coat and Disapparated to the specified corner. James was already there, standing in the snow.

"James, what?" she asked, "What do you need the Invisibility Cl—"

"Lily, be quiet! Please! This is a life-and-death situation!"

"What are you—"

"Please! Just get under the cloak!" James was actually begging her. _This must be really important…_"Do you have your wand?" she produced it from her pocket, "Good, we need to be ready, in case…"

"In case of what?" she asked. She suddenly went pale. "James, does this have anything to do with Vold—"

"Sh!" James said urgently, "Lily, please, I'm trying to save your life!"


	6. VI

**VI.**

Lily gaped at him. "What are you talking—"

They had made it to the hills outside of Reading, where Lily found that a large cave was cleverly concealed behind some vines. "Stay here, I need to get everyone…"

"James, I'm coming with you. No, seriously! I was put into Gryffindor for a reason, I…"

"Oh, fine. My plan was to get our families out first, then Frank Longbottom and his friend Alice…"

"What are we supposed to be saving them from? James, tell me!"

James sighed. "Dumbledore just Flooed me to tell me that Voldemort is planning on attacking, so he told me to evacuate the town to a safe location—"

Lily had gone very white. "Voldemort…? Here…?"

"Yeah, we need to get as many people out as possible—Frank and Alice can help us—so hopefully we can get everyone out. Hopefully we should be able to…"

They had made it back to town. "Get to your family first," James instructed her, "then just go down the streets. I'll get Frank and Alice."

Lily nodded and Disapparated to her house, where she promptly banged on the door and yelled, "Mum! Dad! It's me, Lily! We need to evacuate!"

Her mother opened the door, "Lily, dear, what?"

"Mum, Voldemort, the Dark Lord, he's coming! Here, to Reading! Grab Dad and Petunia, quick!"

Her mother stared at her. "Lily, what are you…"

"Just trust me! Please!" Lily was crying now, "He'll kill us all if he has the chance! Go to the hills south of here, there's a cave behind some vines! Please!"

Her mother nodded and scurried inside to get her husband and Petunia. They quickly left to the specified place, Petunia throwing her a completely mistrusting look.

She ran house to house, and soon her whole street was evacuated. She moved on to the next street, begging and pleading her neighbors to run for the safety of the hills. All of them gave her odd looks, and some of them she had to beg practically on her knees, but only one old man refused to leave.

"I'm not leaving! You can't make me!" the man yelled hysterically.

"Fine, if you want to get yourself killed, stay here. Otherwise, go south of here to the hills, there's a cave."

Finally, the four students met up in the center of town. "Did you get everyone out?" James asked, panting slightly.

"Just one old man wouldn't leave," Lily answered.

"Two couples wouldn't leave for me," Frank said sadly.

"Everyone left," Alice said, trying but failing to look happy.

"Great, I got everyone to leave as well. Now, we just have to—"

But before he could finish his sentence, there were several loud 'cracks' and about thirty dark, cloaked figures surrounded them. In the midst of them stood one taller figure, with red eyes gleaming in the darkness. Alice shrieked in terror, and they all pulled out their wands.

"Good evening, I thought I might meet some resistance here. Four Gryffindors…" came a high, unearthly voice. "But where is the rest of your town?" Voldemort's head turned left and right in the twilight. "Did someone tip you off…perhaps Dumbledore, the Muggle-loving fool?"

James' nostrils flared, and Lily knew he was angry. "James, don't let your temper get the better of you," she warned him.

Voldemort laughed. "Sage advice from a Mudblood, Potter, you would do well to follow it. Perhaps I underestimated her…"

"Like hell you did!" James shouted angrily. Lily grabbed his arm. She was not going to let James' hotheadedness get them all killed…

"Listen to the Mudblood, Potter, and I might spare you," Voldemort said coolly, "I'll ask you again, where is your village?"

"We'll never tell you," James said, obviously acting braver than he felt.

"Yes, I expected that." Voldemort said conversationally, "Perhaps I should force it out of you?" He fingered his wand lovingly.

"That won't be necessary," Lily said quickly.

"Oh, it won't, Evans? Are you willing to tell me?"

"Never!" Lily yelled at him. "You can torture me, sure, but I'll never tell you where my friends and neighbors are!"

"Lily, _no_!' James screamed.

"_Crucio!_" Voldemort cried, pointing his wand at Lily. She tried to duck away, but too late—the curse hit her in the chest and she fell to the ground, overwhelmed with the pain. All of her nerves were burning ardently and she could not possibly put the fire out; she could hear her mouth screaming and Voldemort laughing, she could hear James cursing and yelling at Voldemort, but he could do nothing…

Finally, after what seemed like eons, but was in fact only a minute, Voldemort lifted the curse, the fire died out, and the pain went away. Voldemort's high, cruel, laughter echoed throughout the deserted town, "Are you still unwilling to tell me, Evans?"

"I'll never tell you anything!" Lily spat, attempting to stand up on her shaky legs and grabbing James' arm for support.

"A true Gryffindor, I see. Very well, I'll find out. Legilimens!"

Lily, acting out of instinct, yelled "_Protego_!", unaware of what would happen as a result.

Memories that were not hers flooded her mind—a dark-haired man standing in front of a man with crossed eyes in an old shack…a young boy on a bed speaking to what looked like a younger Professor Dumbledore…a handsome man speaking to a rather large old woman in an overstuffed living room…

"_No_!" Voldemort screamed, "You can't see those!" Lily felt satisfied at the hint of panic in his voice.

"Too late, I already have," Lily said smugly.

James, Frank, and Alice were looking, confused, at Lily, who was now able to stand on her own and had her hands defiantly placed on her hips, and at Voldemort, now even whiter than normal, staring at Lily with such hatred that James was sure that she had seen some private memory of his.

"Obliv-" Voldemort began, but his Memory Charm was interrupted by several loud 'cracks' and forty-some Aurors, in their white robes, surrounded the group. "_Stupefy!_" they yelled in unison.

James pushed Lily down, and Frank Alice, and they heard thumps and counter-curses surround them as the Aurors started to duel with the Death Eaters.

The four were just about to crawl away when large hands pulled Lily up by the collar, and she knew no more.


	7. VII

**VII.**

When Lily came to, she was in a dark, cold, and small room. She looked around and saw no other person, but saw that there was a tiny window in the wall behind her, where a few inches of snow on the ground blocked most of the view to the outside. The snow did not get through the window, but the cold certainly did. "James?" she called tentatively into the darkness. A muffled groan answered her from somewhere in front of her. "Are you ok, James? Where are we?"

"I'm assuming some lair of Voldemort's, look at the food tray by the door."

Lily looked over, examined the small tray by the door, and groaned. It contained a single slice of black bread and a cup of water. On closer inspection, the bread was full of mold, and the water was muddy. Apparently this was to be her diet for her stay…here.

"How long have we been here?" Lily asked James, noting her empty stomach.

"Well, I would tell you, but they stole my watch. Or I lost it. Either way, it is not on my wrist."

Lily looked down at her wrist, and found that hers was gone as well. Remembering that she had been abducted without her family's knowledge, she let out a small sob.

"Lily? Are you all right?" James voice asked, concerned.

"It's just that…our parents don't know where we are…"

"What about Frank and Alice?" James asked.

"I thought they got taken too…"

"No, it was just you and I. Probably because they didn't say anything."

"Yeah…but do you know if they got away? Are they all right?" Lily asked, concerned.

"I think so, before the Death Eater knocked me out I saw them slipping away."

"Excellent, so they know where we are!" Lily said.

"Not, quite, you see, _I _don't know where we are. But I think we're in a dungeon or cellar of some sort, there's some torches lit a little ways down, and there's only really small windows."

"So how are we going to be saved? Do you think the Ministry'll just let us rot here?"

"Hopefully the Aurors noticed us there, and maybe they saw the Death Eaters kidnap us too."

"Do you know where the Death Eaters were?"

"Two big fat ones. They had a strong resemblance to Crabbe and Goyle," James said thoughtfully.

"Excellent, we can nail them when we get out."

"Yeah, if we get out…"

"Oh, Potter, stop being so pessimistic! We're getting out if I say we are! Now, try to ram through the bars of your cell."

"What?" James asked, confused, "They're metal, there's no way…"

"_Prongs_…"

"Oh, I knew that," James said sheepishly, and transformed. He ran head first at the bars; it made a huge, reverberating noise. His charge made no dent in the metal bars whatsoever. He transformed back quickly, rubbing his head. It was lucky that he did, for at that moment Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape came walking down the hall, holding a torch and talking quietly.

They stopped dead when they saw James and Lily. "What are you two doing here?" Malfoy asked, genuinely surprised.

"Sitting doing nothing. What else is there to do in a cell?" Lily asked sarcastically. "Where are we?"

"You're at my place in the dungeons. I didn't think dad would have you _kidnapped _for cursing Severus…" he mused, "not that I'm complaining, though."

"Wait a moment, Voldemort attacked Reading because you told your dad we attacked you?" James asked angrily.

"No, they attacked because the Dark Lord felt like destroying a town. He picked Reading," Snape told them impatiently.

"What's the date?"

"It's the twenty-sixth."

"Oh, that's great," Lily said, rolling her eyes, "we've been here five days. So how long are we visiting?"

"As long as the Dark Lord wishes," Malfoy spat, and they walked away, plunging them back into relative darkness.

"AKA more than a day or two, I'm betting much more than a week," James said, "Wonderful thought, isn't it?"

Lily gave a strangled sob. "My parents'll freak…" She started crying even more, "What about Hogwarts? We're supposed to go back January 2! Sarah, and Laurie, and Sirius, and Remus, and Peter…"

James had gone white as well. "Yeah…we'll miss the start of term!"

"Oh dear, that _is _a loss, isn't it?" Said a voice that sounded eerily like Malfoy's. Lily looked up into the face that could only belong to a Malfoy—Damien Malfoy, Lucius' father. Lily cringed—she now knew where Lucius had inherited his trademark smirk. James looked worriedly over at her—any encounter with a Death Eater could certainly not be painless…

"My, my—the two lovers in separate cells. Do we think I should change that?" Lily and James didn't respond. "I think I should. _Wingardium Leviosa!_" he said, pointing his wand at James. He rose into the air. He was staring daggers at Malfoy, but he could do nothing about his predicament.

Malfoy jerked his wand quickly and sharply toward Lily, and James smashed painfully into the metal bars of his cell. James attempted to stifle his scream, but was unsuccessful. Malfoy released the spell, letting James fall to the ground. When Lily looked closer, she saw that he had a black eye and a broken nose. His glasses lay, broken into pieces, on the ground next to him.

Malfoy laughed, "Dear, that didn't seem to work…" he laughed and walked down the hallway and out of sight.

"Oi! Anyone! Someone come fix him up!" Lily called down the hallway. Of course, she received no answer. She was sure there was other prisoners down in the dungeons—there were too many cells for them to be the only ones—but then she realized that their wands would be stolen as well.

They had only started on wandless magic in Charms class in December, but they would be continuing with it for the rest of the year. She was sure that most, if not all, of the other prisoners were overage and perhaps able to do wandless magic.

"Please, anyone!" she called again after a few moments of silence.

"You know, I really would like to help you, but I'm pathetic at Healing," said a voice to her left.

Lily jumped, "Where are you?"

"In the next cell over. Did you two do something to really offend him?"

"Well, we hexed Snape on the train ride home for Christmas break…"

"Wait, you're still in school?" came the voice incredulously.

"Yeah, we're in our seventh year at Hogwarts…"

The voice swore. "I'm going to _kill_ Bagnold, students are supposed to be safe over break…"

"Well, Voldemort was planning on attacking our hometown, so we evacuated everyone, and were about to leave when Voldemort and his Death Eaters surrounded us. We started yelling at each other, and then the Aurors showed up and two Death Eaters—Crabbe and Goyle, we think—grabbed us and brought us here."

"Crabbe and Goyle…those two brainless gits?"

"Yeah, their kids are in our year-Slytherins," Lily replied scathingly.

"And you would be in…?"

"Gryffindor, of course!"

"Ah, yes, Gryffindor, the noble house. If you don't mind me asking, what is your name?"

"Let's hear yours first, to be sure you don't curse my friend instead of healing him," Lily countered.

"My name's Arthur Weasley. I'm in here for some reason or another, I'm not really sure why. But I really wish I was out, I've got a wife and three sons at home, and our anniversary is on January first. They're all worried sick about me, I'm sure."

"My name's Lily Evans, and he's James Potter," Lily said, "we've been together for about a month and live three blocks down from each other. Can you do wandless magic?"

"Nice to meet you, Lily. I'd much rather meet you under different circumstances, though. You know, face to face." they laughed, "Now, for your nose…James, is it? Get as close to me as you can and I'll try to fix it. No guarantees, though." James complied, and Arthur muttered a spell. James' nose stopped bleeding immediately.

He felt it gingerly and said, "Thanks a bunch! I can live with the black eye, don't worry about that." He stretched, but then winced. "Do you know a spell for broken ribs?"

"I know it, but I can't do it without my wand," Arthur said regretfully. "Poppy can, though…Poppy!" he called across the hallway.

"Yes?" came a female voice from the cell next to James'.

"Can you heal this kid's ribs?"

"Yeah, I can heal ribs…wait, _kid_?"

"Yeah, two seventh years at Hogwarts, Lily Evans and James Potter, got themselves landed here," Arthur explained.

"You're kidding! They have to get out of here before term starts in January…"

"Yes, we know, just fix the poor kid's ribs, will ya? I already healed his nose…"

"Poppy?" Lily asked, surprised. "Poppy Pomfrey?"

"Yes, it's me…my goodness James, what happened to you?" Poppy said. She had to lean her head out of the bars slightly to see him, and James had to do the same.

"Got thrown against the door."

"Oh, that is painful…hm…let's see…" she muttered a complicated-sounding spell, "Does that feel better?"

James stretched slowly and said, "Yeah, thanks a bunch, you guys. Keep me bloodied up and everything, in case a Death Eater comes down."

The four prisoners slumped back in their cells, bored out of their brains. However, one of those brains was thinking furiously…

Thinking of a way to escape.


	8. VIII

**VIII.**

Sirius went home with Remus for break; Mr and Mrs Potter said that they needed to discuss some matters with James, and that Sirius could come to the Potter Mansion on the twenty-third.

Mr and Mrs Lupin welcomed Sirius with open arms, and his first night at the Lupins' was very enjoyable.

It just went downhill from there.

Leaving Sirius sleeping on the cot in his room, Remus went down to the kitchen for his morning cup of coffee. Paying the Daily Prophet owl, he took a sip of coffee as he opened the paper, and read the headline. What he read made him spit it back out.

"_He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named Attacks the Small Town of Reading"_

Remus' eyes grew wider and wider as he read the article, and tried to refrain from screaming.

" '_He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named attacks another innocent Muggle town,' writes Tiffany Skeeter, special correspondent. The Dark Lord attacked the village of Reading late last night at approximately 9:30 pm. However, he arrived to find the village deserted. If they were tipped off by an unknown person or persons in unclear. Soon after the Dark Lord arrived, forty Aurors showed up, and a battle ensued. Five Aurors and four Death Eaters were killed; however, the Dark Lord seems to have searched the region surrounding the town and, finding the citizens, killed as many of them as he could. All of them have been identified as Muggles with the exception of one wizard and one witch. There are three critically injured citizens, but it is unclear whether they are Muggle or magical. Five citizens are missing. The ministry is searching for these missing persons, and hopes that they survived…(continued on page 3)"_

Remus felt his insides turn to ice. "SIRIUS!" he bellowed, "GET DOWN HERE!"

Sirius came down the stairs a few seconds later, pulling on a robe. "What's wrong?" he asked, apparently alarmed at the look on Remus' face.

"This is what's wrong!" Remus said through gritted teeth, thrusting the paper into Sirius' hands. He read the headline, and turned chalk white. Proceeding to read the article, he turned a very nasty green.

"So…Moldy-Shorts attacked Reading…" Sirius said, trying to stay composed.

It didn't work.

He let out a scream that sounded so much like a howl the Lupins were down in seconds. By then, Sirius was sitting in the corner, rocking back and forth, his face in his hands.

"What was that about?" Mr Lupin asked, looking apprehensively at his son and Sirius.

"James…dead…should have been there…all my fault…" Sirius was muttering in his corner.

Remus crossed the room quickly and pulled Sirius up. "Mate, we don't even know if he's dead," Remus said, assuring himself more than Sirius. "They said that at least three people survived, I'll bet you James and Lily were two of them!"

The Lupins, in the meantime, were reading the article, their faces also very white. "Floo to St Mungo's and ask who the injured patients are," Ian Lupin instructed. "And if they aren't those two, there's still five missing…"

"'Missing' just means that they haven't found their bodies yet," Remus said bitterly. He and Sirius then grabbed the Floo Powder and transported to the hospital.

The secretary looked sleepy; it was six-thirty in the morning. The two rushed up to her, and Sirius said, very quickly, "Who are the three injured people from the attack on Reading last night?"

The secretary flipped through some notes on her desk before pausing and asking, "Why do you want to know?"

Sirius was a strange mixture of red with anger and green with anxiety. "Because two of our best mates lived there."

She searched for another few moments before saying, "Augusta Longbottom, forty-five, Katelyn Monroe, forty-one, and Raymond Monroe, forty-seven, are the three known survivors of the attack on Reading on the night of December 20, 1977. These three were the only known survivors, though five of the citizens are not yet accounted for. There are ten known wizard residents of Reading—Lily Evans, the three Potters, the three Longbottoms, and the three Monroes." She looked up at the two. "I'm sorry, it doesn't say anything about who's missing and who's dead…"

Sirius clutched the desk for support. "James…no…_he can't be dead!_" He roared the last words so loudly that they echoed off of the walls of the empty lobby for several seconds before diminishing into silence. The secretary looked extremely apologetic.

"If we discover anything else, I'll be sure that it gets put into the Daily Prophet."

Remus nodded numbly, guided Sirius back to the fireplace, and they Flooed back to the Lupin home.

* * *

Sarah Kellison was sitting in front of the Muggle television in her grandmother's house, Atlanta, Georgia on the first full day of Christmas break. She was watching the 5:00 news, and so far it was pretty boring, just about some serial killer up in Kansas…

But then, "…We have just gotten a newsflash from London, England. To you, David."

David said, "We have just gotten information about a raid on an English town, not far from London, called Reading last night at about 9:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. here." Sarah sat straight up on the couch, terrified. "About thirty armed men stormed the town, meeting a resistance of four teenagers and four teenagers alone. These teens were soon backed up by armed governmental officials…"

Sarah didn't listen to the rest of it. She didn't need to. "MUM! DAD!" she roared.

They came in, and seeing the look on Sarah's face, immediately crossed the room to her. "Sarah, honey, what's wrong?" her mother asked, alarmed.

"It's…it's…" Sarah sobbed, "Lily…"

"What about Lily?" her father asked.

Sarah pointed at the television screen, but the reporter had already moved on to something else. "Sarah, what is it?" her mother asked again.

"Voldemort…Reading…" Sarah choked out.

"Voldemort attacked Reading?" Mrs. Kellison asked, wide-eyed. "That's where Lily lives…"

"Go out and get a Daily Prophet, maybe there's more information there," her mother instructed her. Sarah nodded and Disapparated to the Leaky Cauldron. She walked through it without a word to anyone, wordlessly gave Tom the bartender some Knuts, took a paper, and Apparated home.

Opening it up on the coffee table in the living room, she read the article. This did not help her feeling of dread, but her father said, "Lily might still be alive then! The article said that there were three critically injured, and five missing…"

A bit of hope filled Sarah. "Maybe you're right…we'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

* * *

Christmas was ruined for the Lupins, and the gift giving and dinner was attended in almost absolute silence. Sirius did not seem to grasp the fact that James might have been dead.

A few days later, and article appeared in the paper that almost completely extinguished their hopes for Lily and James' survival.

_"Three Survivors of Attack Accounted for, Two Still Missing"_

Remus choked as he read the article aloud to his parents and Sirius.

" '_Three of the missing people from the attack on Reading a little over a week ago have now been accounted for,' the Minister said in a statement last night. Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, informed the Minister that Alice Monroe, Frank Longbottom, and Petunia Evans are safely at Hogwarts._

"_A search needs to begin for the two other missing who may not have been as lucky immediately, if not sooner," Minerva McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts, said. "Even if it is to find their bodies, their friends and family can know what happened to them rather than waiting for a miracle that may never come."_

_The names of the two missing and nearly three hundred dead have not been disclosed to the general public."_

"And why the hell not?" Sirius said angrily, interrupting Remus.

'_Nobody knows anything for sure,' Bagnold said, 'and we don't want to give false hope to those who may have friends or relations in Reading. Once we are positive of who the last two survivors are, if there are any more, we will of course publish their names.'_

_As a writer for the Daily Prophet, I believe that Professor McGonagall is right, and the Ministry should be taking actions to identify and locate the missing people, rather than sitting around, twiddling their thumbs, and waiting for something happen. Nothing will get accomplished that way…for all we know, the two missing people, whoever they may be, could be helplessly captured and waiting for rescue, and that will not come the way the Ministry is going about this case. I've half a mind to march into the Auror office and demand that Scrimgeour get a team set on this, if only so that we can learn if anybody else survived this horrendous attack."_

Sirius and Remus were sobbing at the end of the article. "If that idiot of a minister would just tell us who they _think _survived…" Remus muttered angrily.

Sirius was up and halfway to the Floo Powder before Remus stopped him. "Where are you going?"

"To yell at the Ministry!"

Remus had half a mind to join him, but he was stopped by his logic. "Are they really going to listen to you?"

"They'd better!" and he Flooed away. Sighing, Remus followed suit.

Grabbing Sirius' arm halfway across the Atrium, Remus was dragged all the way over to the secretary desk, where Sirius all but yelled at the secretary, "Tell me if James Potter and Lily Evans are alive. _Now._"

The secretary did not flinch. "And why would you want to know?"

Sirius turned beet red with anger. "Because they're two of our best mates."

"I cannot tell you."

"And why the bloody hell not?"

"Because even the Minister does not know for sure who else, if anyone, has survived the attack on Reading, so I cannot truthfully answer that question."

Giving a cry of rage, Sirius turned on his heel and stormed back to the fireplace. The Lupins did not question them, as the looks on their faces told all. It looked like they just had to wait until the second of January to find out…


	9. IX

**IX.**

Lily awoke on a hard stone floor. _How did I get on the floor?_ she wondered to herself. She didn't remember falling off of her bed, and she was sure no room in her house had a solid stone floor…

She looked up and saw bars in place of a door, and moldy bread for breakfast instead of eggs. She sighed. She knew where she was—in the Malfoy's dungeon. She looked across the hall, and sure enough—there was James, still with blood all over his face and a black eye. She looked in the cell next to him, and Poppy was there, fast asleep.

She crawled over to the food plate, noticing her growling stomach, and attempted to eat the bread. She gagged and spat it back out.

"You'll have to eat it," came Arthur Weasley's voice, "that's all they give us here."

Lily groaned. "I'll probably starve to death then," she said.

"If you're hungry enough, you'll eat anything,"

"If you say so," Lily said as her stomach growled again. Plugging her nose, she put a small piece of bread in her mouth and swallowed it quickly. She gagged, but she was able to keep it down. She proceeded until all of the bread was gone, and then poured the water down her throat. It didn't help her hunger much, but at least there was something in her stomach.

"James!" Lily yelled across the hallway. He awoke with a start, his hand in his pocket.

"Damn," he muttered, remembering where he was and that he was wandless. "Lily, what?"

"Just thought you should wake up," Lily said cheerfully. "Eat your breakfast now that you're awake, it's better if you plug your nose."

Shooting Lily an angry glare, James crawled to the food plate and attempted to swallow the food, but gagged and spat it out like Lily did.

"I told you to plug your nose," Lily reprimanded, "that's the only way it'll go down."

So James plugged his nose and quickly ate the bread and drank the water, pulling a face as the bits of dirt in the water went down his throat. "Is that all we get?" he asked, sounding put out.

"Yes, we get that as often as they decide to give it to us, usually every other day," Arthur explained sadly, "It's not much, but it's enough to survive on."

"But…but…" James sputtered.

Lily laughed, "Arthur, he eats five times that much as a midnight snack down in the kitchens, and at least twenty times that much for lunch alone!"

Arthur laughed. "You should meet up with my wife once we break out, then. She cooks like mad; I'm sure even you, after spending a while in here, wouldn't be able to eat it all!"

"I'll take a bet on that," James shot back.

"Wait a moment, Arthur, did you say 'break out'?" Lily said, slightly alarmed.

"Yeah, it won't get you to school by the time term starts, but it'll get us out," Arthur said cheerfully, "I haven't gotten it completely worked out yet, but it'll get us all out eventually."

Lily was filled with hope. "How long will we have to wait to ditch this place?"

"Probably two to three weeks. It'll probably take a while to get it set up. Now, for reasons unknown to me, Malfoy put windows in some of his dungeon cells. Windows that are too small for a person to fit in, but big enough for an arm, and ones without glass. So, I have some parchment I nicked a while back, and some charcoal I found in here. Lily's cell and mine have windows, and they open up onto a relatively busy Muggle street. So, all we need to do is get a message asking for help out of the window, to an owl, and then to the Ministry!"

Poppy, who had woken up halfway through this explanation, said, slightly muddled, "What are you on about, Arthur?"

"A way to get us out of this place," Arthur said excitedly.

"Sh!" Lily said suddenly. The four of them fell silent, and they heard footsteps coming down the hall. The four of them flung themselves onto the floor and arranged their faces into bored looks.

Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape were coming down the hall again. "What were you four talking about?" Malfoy asked them suspiciously.

"About how bad the food is at this place," Arthur lied.

"Oh, really? What do they give you down here?"

"Moldy bread and muddy water," James spat reproachfully.

"Shame, shame," Malfoy said, "we were just off to the kitchen to get some lunch, weren't we, Severus?"

"Yes, pity these Gryffindors can't join us," they laughed and continued down the hall. Soon they heard a door slam.

"A way to get out?" Poppy asked excitedly. "But the Ministry thinks that the Malfoys are good! They don't even know that these dungeons exist!"

"Exactly. So we'll explain in our letter where we are, and ask them to send Aurors and the like to save us."

"I suppose that makes sense," Lily said doubtfully, "but what if they don't believe us?"

"Well, we'll just have to send a letter to Dumbledore then, won't we?" James said immediately.

"Why don't we just send the letter to Dumbledore in the first place?" Lily said logically.

More footsteps sounded from down the hall. Lily looked out from the bars of her cell and saw Damien Malfoy walking towards them. "Just passing through," he sneered, "I don't have time for you lot today. And today's December twenty-seventh, I highly doubt that you'll get to Hogwarts on time, seeing as term starts in six days."

"We're fully aware of that, Malfoy, now go away." Arthur said in an impatient voice.

"You're in no position to tell me what to do, Weasley," Malfoy told him, but then left.

"We've got six days until school, and it'll take two to three weeks to get out of here?" Lily asked Arthur, slightly hysterical, "we've got our N.E.W.T.s this year, we can't miss too much school!"

"I understand that. The latest you'll be to school is a week or two, as long as our plan works…"

* * *

Albus Dumbledore sighed. It had been a long first half of break, and it certainly did not start on a happy note. Voldemort attacking Reading…four students lived there, and two of them were declared missing. Frank Longbottom and Alice Monroewere safely here, at Hogwarts, but James Potter and Lily Evans were nowhere to be found. He had heard from one of the surviving Aurors that he saw two Death Eaters grab Lily and James, knock them unconscious, and Disapparate. He had no clue whatsoever where to start looking for them…Voldemort's lair would be choice number one, but where was it?

He looked up from his desk as Professors McGonagall, Sprout, Flitwick, and Slughorn walked in. "Do you have any idea where they might be, Albus?" Minerva asked cautiously.

"At some lair of Voldemort's, I'm sure…" Dumbledore muttered, "but the reason I called you all here was not to discuss where Mr. Potter and Miss Evans are. It is to discuss the survivors, and the Head Boy and Head Girl positions.

"The survivors of the attack, as of now, are Frank and Alice, Lily's sister, Petunia, Mr Longbottom's mother, who normally lives alone, and Miss Monroe's parents. Mrs Longbottom and Mr and Mrs Monroe are in St Mungo's at this moment. Frank and Alice are, as you know, here at Hogwarts. But Petunia…"

"You don't know where Lily's sister is?" Slughorn said sharply. "It's bad enough losing her parents, losing her sister would make it worse!"

"I know, Horace," Dumbledore said heavily, "that's why we need to find her."

* * *

Petunia Evans was terrified. Everyone around her was dead, only she had somehow survived. She began to run back to town, where maybe she could contact someone. She ran back to her house, which was, surprisingly, intact, and looked at the many telephone numbers pinned to the wall. After a few minutes of looking, she stopped and almost screamed at her stupidity. _Lily's kind _didn't use telephones…

She sat down at the table, thoroughly depressed. She didn't know where Lily was…as much as she hated her—and she did, with all of her being—facing life without any family was quite terrifying. Her mind flashed back to the twentieth, when she had last seen her sister…

_Petunia heard frantic pounding on the front door. Her mother answered it—it was Lily, in shock. She had gone on about how Voldemort had planned to invade Reading and pleaded with them to run south of the town. Her parents had obliged, but Petunia had not trusted Lily's claims, and had slipped away from her parents to go back to Reading. Lily and three of her freak friends were going door to door, begging the residents to leave. Most of them did._

_She watched, hidden in a bush, as the four met in the middle of town. Soon, however, thirty-odd men surrounded them. She listened to Potter and Lily yell at them, while their friends stayed silent. She cringed as Lily began to scream louder than she had ever heard; when she finally stopped, she still wouldn't tell Voldemort where everyone was. Unusually, Petunia was glowing with pride for her sister. She would never be able to keep a secret after being tortured…_

_Then, forty-some people in white robes appeared out of thin air and began attacking the others. She could barely make out Lily and her friends, but soon two black-robed men grabbed Lily and Potter and disappeared. _Would they kill or torture her even more?

_Still hidden from all of the wizards, Petunia began to run back to the hill where the townspeople were hidden. But then, instead of going there, she began running even farther. She wouldn't get killed, not by those idiots…_

_She had run at least a mile south of the villagers, and decided to hide behind an enormous oak tree. Ten minutes went by, then thirty. She cautiously looked around the tree and saw, off in the distance, flashes of green light and distant screams. Petunia sincerely hoped that her family and friends would be all right._

_She remembered going back to the hill, only to find the whole village dead. She thought she might have heard a moan somewhere, but nothing and nobody moved. Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her, felt something fall down on her head, and all went black._

Petunia supposed, sitting at her kitchen table, that one of the men must have stuck around, waiting for any survivors. That would also explain whey she missed the better part of a week…

She supposed that Lily and Potter had gotten the worst end of the deal-she personally would rather be dead than be a captive of Voldemort's…

She just hoped, for the first time since Lily had gone to school, that she was all right, because Petunia sure didn't feel like _she _was.

* * *

Arthur and Poppy had worked hard on the letter, and finally, with many crossings-outs and angry mutterings, they had a finished product. It had taken the two adults three days to get it the way they wanted it.

_Professor Dumbledore,_

_Damien and Lucius Malfoy are Death Eaters. Their home is Voldemort's major hideout, and we think that Voldemort and other Death Eaters live there. There are at least four prisoners in Malfoy's dungeon. We know this for a fact because we are the prisoners—we are trapped in Malfoy Manor, captives of Lord Voldemort. Because two of us are still in school, it is imperative that we get out as soon as possible. Please, we would appreciate it if you could help us. Do not reply to this, because if Malfoy intercepted it, we would be in huge trouble. And, sorry about the messiness of it, we could only nick one piece of parchment._

_Yours sincerely,_

_AW, PP, LE, and JP_

_P.S.-(JP) I'm starving down here! Come and give us some food! Oh, and save us too!_

_P.P.S-(LE) Oh, come on JP, you'll survive!_

Poppy laughed. "I think you'll survive, James."

"You know, comic relief is always good," James argued.

"I think it's great, personally," Lily said, smiling. "Our friends will know we're alive, because they'll be at Hogwarts, and Dumbledore is so much more trusting than the Ministry."

"Now the hard part, getting it to an owl," James mused. "One of you two will have to be looking out of the window all the time."

"Yeah, that'll work…"

"Oh gosh, we'll miss two weeks of school!" Lily began to go into hysterics. "Think of all the classes I'll miss…and the lectures…and all the homework I'll have to catch up on…"

"Lily, calm down!" James said, slightly alarmed. "I'm pretty sure that the teachers won't make us do make-up work…think of where we are…we have a valid excuse for not being at Hogwarts! Even _I'd _rather be at school than this dump!"

Just so you can prank Snape," Lily sniffled.

"Well, that's part of it. But Hogwarts is my home, _our _home now."


	10. X

**X.**

"Albus, do you think that Petunia Evans might still be in Reading?" Filius squeaked.

"A fair question; we could go check now, if you like.".

Fawkes flew down from his perch and landed on Dumbledore's desk. "Take my hand, Minerva, and we can form a chain," Dumbledore instructed. They did as they were told, and as Dumbledore grasped Fawkes' tail, they disappeared in a flash of flames.

They arrived in a completely intact ghost town. The five professors walked down the street, thinking it as very eerie. Dumbledore gave a start and began walking down a side street. "There's a light on down there," he explained to his confused companions.

They arrived at the house, and knocked on the door. Footsteps could be heard coming from the inside of the house, but the door stayed closed. "Who's there?"

"I am Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts. We have come to take you to Hogwarts; if you don't mind, of course."

"Isn't that where Lily goes to school? Isn't that a magic school?"

"Yes, but seeing as you are along in this town, I thought that you might like some company," Dumbledore said cheerfully.

"I'll come,' Petunia said grudgingly, at last opening the door, "but it's only for peoples' company, I don't _want_ to be around people like…you…too often."

Minerva's mouth was a very thin line, but Dumbledore gave Petunia's comment no notice.

"You'll need to hold on to my hand, then," Dumbledore instructed her. "Minerva can hold your other hand, and we will have the same chain as we did before." Petunia did as she was told, and when Dumbledore grabbed Fawkes' tail, they reappeared in Dumbledore's office.

"Now, Miss Evans…" Dumbledore said, turning to Petunia, "you can stay in Gryffindor tower. Nobody will question you if you say that you are Lily's sister."

"All right," said Petunia.

"Albus, where will she sleep?" Minerva asked, "The seventh year dormitory will be full when Miss Evans comes back…"

"Petunia, you don't mind sleeping in the common room, do you?" Dumbledore asked gently. Petunia shook her head, obviously thinking that it would be much better that way. "Excellent; Minerva, if you could show her the way, we'll wait for you…"

* * *

Lily stared blankly out of the window of her cell. A full two days had passed since they had perfected the letter, and she and Arthur were working in shifts at the window. So far, they had had no luck. Today, since it was Arthur's anniversary, he was sitting in his cell, depressed and muttering to himself; Lily would be standing at the window all day. She wasn't particularly bothered about it; she was sure Arthur would be doing the same for her the next day.

She had no idea where Malfoy Manor was in England, nor did she know how long it would take the owl to get to Hogwarts. Arthur had said that she would miss a week or two of school—ha! At this rate, she'd be missing a month!

It was incredibly boring, staring out of a barred window-it seemed like nobody could see her at all from the busy street that was fifty feet away, and if they did, they ignored her. She suspected that there was some sort of anti-Muggle spell on the manor—she could clearly tell that most, if not all of the passers-by were Muggles, and they didn't even seem to see the manor at all.

The day passed uneventfully, and finally Arthur said, "Lily? Do you want me to take over?"

"Are you sure? You'll probably be doing all of tomorrow too…" Lily said.

"Don't worry about it, just pass the letter over," Lily put the letter in Arthur's outstretched hand, "Get some sleep now."

Lily curled up in the back corner of her cell and attempted to fall asleep. When she did, she had an extremely restless night—dreams of her parents and Petunia—dead…dreams of Sarah and Laurie—dead…

And then she had a dream that was very different than the others. It seemed like some sort of vision. She was watching, as if from a surveillance camera, as Remus picked up a newspaper and did a spit-take, as Sarah sat in front of a Muggle television, her eyes wide, and as Sirius sat in a corner, rocking back and forth, pale as death.

She woke up in a cold sweat, and ran to the barred door and asked, "Arthur, have you gotten an owl?"

"No, there's been a few robins, but they can't carry letters all the way to Hogwarts…"

"Is it the second?" Lily asked him.

"It's probably about noon on the second, yeah."

Lily crawled back into the corner of her cell. "Hogwarts…" she muttered, "I need to get back to Hogwarts…"

* * *

Dumbledore waited until Minerva came back, then said, "We will need to find temporary replacements for Miss Evans and Mr Potter. I'm suggesting Sarah Kellison and Remus Lupin, but they might be dysfunctional…do you have any suggestions?"

"If those two aren't in shock when they arrive, go ahead, they're great kids," Horace said.

"Kellison and Lupin would work, but what about Frank Longbottom as a back-up? He certainly deserves the honor…" Pomona suggested. "As for Head Girl…"

"Kristin Heidianos?" Filius suggested, "She's a great kid as well…"

"Excellent! Minerva, do you have any objections?" she shook her head. "Wonderful. Term starts on Monday the second. We'll have to wait until the students arrive to see about Miss Kellison and Mister Lupin, so there really was nothing else I wanted to discuss with you all."

Taking the hint, the four Heads left Dumbledore's study quietly, closing the door behind them. Sighing heavily, Dumbledore put his face in his hands. Lily and James…how would he find them? Where was Voldemort hiding?

* * *

Sarah was in a daze as she stumbled aboard the Hogwarts Express with her four friends—Laurie, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Some people gave her confused looks-those that didn't know-and others gave her sympathetic ones-as if _they _could understand losing the best friend a girl could ask for…

They found an empty compartment and settled down inside of it. They didn't speak for the rest of the ride, and changed into their robes silently.

When they got off of the train at Hogsmeade Station, they stumbled over to a carriage and climbed into it. Soon Kristin Heidianos and a couple of her Hufflepuff friends came in as well. Kristin seemed to be the only one of them who knew why they were so quiet. When Heather Castlebret opened her mouth, looking concernedly at them, Kristin whispered something in her ear, and Heather paled and closed her mouth. Nobody spoke a word throughout the rest of the journey up the grounds to the castle.

"Miss Kellison, Mister Lupin, could I speak to you for a moment?" Sarah nodded numbly and followed McGonagall up the stairs on a route she recognized as leading to Dumbledore's office.

"Chocolate Frog," McGonagall said to the stone gargoyle. Evidently the password had been changed, for the gargoyle leapt aside and permitted them to enter. Sarah noticed rather detachedly that McGonagall did not follow them up the stone steps.

Sarah had no idea what Professor Dumbledore wanted from her and Remus. And, to be very frank, she didn't care.

"Hello, Sarah and Remus," Dumbledore said kindly as they sat down in front of his desk. "The four Heads and I were having a discussion, and they nominated you two as temporary Head Boy and Girl…"

"Temporary?" Remus blurted. "Does that mean James and Lily are alive?"

"I cannot answer that, Remus, I'm sorry," Dumbledore said, dropping his gaze to the floor. "Now, I would understand if you two would not want to be Heads…"

"I don't want to," they both said at the same time.

"All right then," Dumbledore said, "You may go then, that's all I needed from you."

Sarah did not move. "Professor, if there's a chance that Lily's…alive, will you save her? And James?"

Dumbledore looked up at the two desperate teenagers, looking hopefully back at him. "Miss Kellison, I will do everything in my power to bring your friends back safely. _Anything_."

Sarah and Remus nodded thankfully and left the office; however, instead of going in the direction of the Great Hall, they turned down the hallway towards the Gryffindor common room. Sarah wasn't sure that she could face dinner and all the happy people there, and Remus seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

They got up to the common room, and then realized that they didn't know the password. "Has it changed since last term?" Sarah asked the Fat Lady tentatively.

"I'm afraid it has, dears," the Fat Lady replied, "But you're Sarah Kellison and Remus Lupin?"

"Yeah…"

"And your best friends are Lily Evans and James Potter?" as their eyes welled up with tears, she took that as a 'yes'. "I heard all about it, I'll let you in tonight. I think there's someone inside that can tell you the password for the future."

"Thanks," Sarah said, her eyes still full of tears. The portrait hold swung open and they climbed inside. In the common room was the last person they ever expected to see at Hogwarts.

"Petunia?" Sarah asked, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"Professor Dumbledore said I could stay here. He also said that I'd be sharing a dorm with you until Lily comes back," she replied, rather reproachfully. "He said that I'll have to sleep down here once Lily comes back."

"No you don't! We can take turns camping out on the floor, you don't have to sleep down here all by yourself!"

Petunia shook her head "I'd rather just stay down here…" she turned to Remus. "And you are…?"

"Remus Lupin," he replied promptly.

"Oh, right. I've heard Lily talk about you…"

Before anyone could reply, the portrait hole opened and Sirius stumbled in. Sarah was shocked—she had never seen him out of control before. Sirius stood in front of them, his eyes wide, and he looked slightly mad. Sarah thought he slightly resembled Tyler Lovegood from Ravenclaw—he was nuttier than a squirrel. Sirius had that mad look in his eye, and it frightened Sarah.

"James…" he panted, "Frank doesn't know where he is; all he knows is that two Death Eaters took him away…"

"That's all Dumbledore knows too. He asked us if we could be Head Boy and Girl."

"He asked you to be Heads?" Sirius said, his eyes popping slightly. "Does that mean James is…"

"He said _temporary _Heads, but he also said that he didn't know if they're alive."

Sirius lost it completely. Collapsing onto the nearest chair, he began to howl with grief. Sarah looked apprehensively at Remus, but he looked just as bewildered as she felt.

"Padfoot," Remus began firmly, "Dumbledore'll find Prongs; he'll be fine."

* * *

James wished he was anywhere but where he was now. Lily was fruitlessly keeping the vigil for the owl while Arthur sat in the corner of his cell, gray-faced and muttering. The hours passed slowly. Finally, Arthur offered to take the letter and keep watch, and Lily fell asleep. So did James-he had made it his objective to make sure that no harm came to Lily.

When he had just fallen asleep, a large Death Eater came walking down the hall. "You, Potter!" he said gruffly, "My master wants to see you!"

The cell door swung open and James was once again lifted into the air and out of his cell. _Great,_ he thought, _more broken ribs_. Poppy and Arthur seemed to be thinking along the same lines. Lily, however, was sound asleep—James was grateful for that. "All right," he said to the Death Eater, as if he had a choice in the matter.

The Death Eater merely grunted and sent James soaring down the hallway and straight into the wall. James kept from screaming, but a groan echoed through the corridor. His nose was intact, but he was sure that at least one rib was broken.

Still floating, James was sent flying into the far wall of each corridor they passed through; the Death Eater walked behind him, smirking. By the time they arrived at a large oak door inscribed with the Dark Mark, James felt as if he was falling apart. He could feel that his nose was spouting blood, and his rib cage felt as if it was shattered into pieces. Despite the pain, however, James had not let a single scream escape his lips—he would not be weak, he would not be weak…

Soon, he was floating in the air in front of Voldemort. "Hello, Potter," he sneered, and signaled the Death Eater to put him down. However much he was glad to be on solid ground again, James couldn't help but wince as he felt his tailbone crack on the stone floor. "I've been waiting to have a little chat with you."

"Oh yeah?" James said angrily, "Why?"

"About the Mudblood, Evans." Voldemort said. James looked ready to kill, but he just laughed. "I'm assuming you want her out of here alive?"

"Duh," James said.

"But what if I said I would only let one of you two out? Would it be you or her?"

"Her," James said, without hesitation.

"A Gryffindor through and through, I see. What would you say if I let her go back to Hogwarts, but then killed you? Or would you want it the other way around?"

"I'd still bant her free," James said, again without hesitation.

"Really?" Voldemort said, apparently fascinated. "So you'd give up your life for a Mudblood's?"

"Yes, I bould," James said truthfully. Sure, he didn't know if Lily would do the same for him, but he loved her…

"Just a question. I wouldn't let either of you go," Voldemort said lightly.

"Why? What do you need frub us?" James asked, more than slightly irritated now.

"Absolutely nothing. It's just the pleasure of having people down in those dungeons. Weasley and Pomfrey can get quite boring."

"So what's the point of holding us as prisoners?"

"I just told you, Potter, weren't you listening? I want entertainment," Voldemort said, annoyed. "So I may come down and pay you a visit…or, more likely, you'll be paying me a visit. I don't often go downstairs." He smiled cruelly. _"Crucio!_" He held the curse for half a minute before lifting it." That was for your impudence, Potter. He stood up, "That's all I wanted with him, now all of you, _leave_!"

All of the Death Eaters left except for Lucius Malfoy, who seemed to take great pleasure in levitating James and bringing him back down to the dungeons in the same way he was brought up. As soon as Arthur and Poppy came into view, Poppy paled and Arthur swore as they turned toward him. _Do I really look that bad?_ James wondered, slightly dizzy and disoriented from the Cruciatus Curse, as Malfoy opened his cell and dropped him inside. James nearly passed out with the pain-what with all of his broken ribs and nose repeatedly being smashed into walls, the after-effects of the curse, and now his recently cracked tailbone hitting the ground full-force, the pain was almost unbearable.

Malfoy laughed and left. James' vision began to blur. Trying to stay conscious, he felt his nose and a few ribs heal because of Arthur and Poppy, but he didn't feel any better. Falling backwards onto the stone floor, he passed out in a dead faint.

* * *

Arthur swore as James flew down the hallway towards them. His face was covered in blood and he was chalk white. The Death Eater, Lucius Malfoy, dropped him in his cell, and from James' reaction, Arthur guessed that he had a cracked tailbone as well.

As Malfoy left, Arthur and Poppy began trying to heal James, who seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness. Arthur cursed again as James fell back, completely out cold. "Will he be all right?" he asked Poppy.

"I think so, the only things wrong with him are his nose, ribs, and tailbone as far as I can tell. We'll have to wait until he comes 'round to be sure."

"All right," Arthur said dejectedly. "I'm just glad that Lily wasn't awake to see that."

"Me too, though I'd be more worried about Malfoy; she might murder him."

Arthur laughed hollowly, and again took to staring out of his window. He was dead tired; yesterday, he was supposed to have celebrated his anniversary, and today James and Lily were supposed to be going back to Hogwarts. "It isn't fair," he mumbled.

"Nothing's fair at the moment, Arthur," Poppy said tiredly, "Will you tell me if James wakes? I'm going to try and get some sleep."

"Sure," Arthur answered absently. Hours passed, in which the only moving creatures he saw were a couple of robins. Sighing deeply, he knew he would be the watch all day. Lily really did love Hogwarts, or rather, the things _at _Hogwarts. She would be like he was…

Arthur was even more determined after these thoughts. _I have to get this to Dumbledore…to an owl…I need to get to Molly…James and Lily need to get to Hogwarts…_

A few more hours passed, and Lily woke up. Just as Arthur had guessed, she was completely devastated to learn that it was January second. _She needs to get back to Hogwarts…_


	11. XI

**XI.**

When James awoke, he was not in his cell at the Malfoys'; instead, he was at Hogwarts. _Geez, did they already get the letter sent and a rescue organized?_ he thought absently. As he looked around him, he realized that he was standing in a packed Gryffindor common room. However, the room was much more subdued than usual, and nobody noticed his presence.

"Where do you think they are, Moony?" asked a red-eyed Sirius. James was taken aback—he had never seen Sirius like that before.

"It's only the first day of term, Padfoot. I'm sure Dumbledore will find and rescue them."

"But what if they're dead? James can't be dead, he doesn't know how to die!" and then Sirius burst into tears, something James had never seen before. Realizing what they were talking about, James walked across the room to a corner where three extremely depressed looking girls were sitting.

"I've known Lily for years, she can't just die on me!" Sarah screamed hysterically, her blue-green eyes full of tears, while more streamed down her face. "She can't die!"

Laurie, too, had eyes full of tears. "Sarah, Lily can't die, she doesn't know how to!" James almost chuckled at the parallelism between the two conversations.

"Lily may not know how to die, but Voldemort knows how to kill," Sarah countered, "Not much she can do if she gets hit with an Avada Kedavra. If it hits you, you're dead. You can't survive it-nobody ever has."

"Thank you, Sarah, we learned that last year," Laurie said impatiently, "You're not helping."

"Let's go to bed, you guys," Petunia, who James was very surprised to see, said sharply.

James' vision blurred, and he was once again plunged into darkness.

* * *

Lily was watching James for any signs of life, when he groaned and sat up. She yelled, "Poppy! Arthur! He's awake!"

"What day is it?" he asked groggily.

"It's the third of January, you've been out for a whole day!" Poppy said reprovingly. "Malfoy really did a number on you yesterday."

"Have any Death Eaters or Voldemort come down at all?" James asked.

"No…why would they?" Arthur asked, surprised at the panic in his voice.

"When I was upstairs with Voldemort…he told me that we would be visiting him sometimes…"

Lily felt her face pale. "Can you tell us what happened upstairs?"

"Well, I got up there, and Voldemort started asking me about you, Lily." he began, "He asked, if one of us would be let go, which would it be, and I said you." Lily felt her eyes fill up with tears. "Then he asked me if my answer would be the same if he would kill me if I stayed and you left, and I said yes."

"Oh, Potter!" Lily said, blushing, "You didn't need to say that!"

"Yeah I did," James said shortly. "Then I asked him why he was keeping us down here, and he said just for his entertainment, because he thought you guys—" he gestured at Arthur and Poppy, "—were getting boring."

Arthur snorted. "That's a good laugh! Lord Voldemort thinks we're boring!"

"I'd rather be at Hogwarts more than ever, and that's saying something. I'd even rather be in History of Magic, with Moony bugging me and Padfoot to take notes instead of goof off…"

"Moony? Padfoot?" Arthur asked, confused.

"Two of his friends, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. They've all got nicknames for each other, James is Prongs and their other friend, Peter Pettigrew, is Wormtail."

"I see," Arthur said, smiling. "Me and my friend, Amos Diggory, did that too. It must be a boy thing. We were the biggest troublemakers back in the day…"

"I beg to differ!" James cried indignantly, "We are feared by all younger students for our pranks, and we get detentions weekly, if not daily!"

"I suppose 'we' would be you and your friends?" Arthur asked.

"Yep, Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs, Hogwarts Marauders!" James declared proudly. "We even made a map of Hogwarts, 'cept it's got all the secret passageways, plus shows anyone and everyone in the castle and where they are! And, if anyone wants to read it but doesn't have the password, we charmed it to insult them!"

Arthur seemed to be in a state of shock. "I suppose nobody knows about this map?"

"Damn," James muttered, banging his head against the wall. "You'll have to promise to never tell anyone now, Poppy."

Poppy chuckled. "Sure."

"I think they've got you beat," Lily chuckled.

"Yep, I think you do," Arthur admitted. "Congratulations, I thought we were unbeatable!"

"Yeah, well, it'd be pretty hard to beat me and Sirius!" James said, puffing out his chest, "And…"

"It'd be _impossible _to find someone with a bigger head," Lily interjected, "You should see him at school, he's always gloating about something or other; that's why I didn't go out with him for four and a half years."

"At least he's persistent," Arthur said reasonably, "He's been asking you out for four and a half years—he must really love you, Lily."

"Yes he does, but he also hates being talked about as if he's not there!" James said, annoyed.

Lily, Poppy, and Arthur laughed, and Lily again took to watching out of the window. They continued to chat about nothing in particular until night fell. Arthur, Poppy, and James fell asleep, while Lily continued to stare out of the window. After about two hours, she felt as if she was about to fall asleep. She was about to wake Arthur up and ask him to take over…

When salvation came to her-winged, small, and feathery.

* * *

It was Thursday, January sixth at 5:45 pm, and Remus Lupin could not concentrate on his homework. Sirius was in depression and in the Hospital Wing because of it, and Sarah wasn't far behind him. She still didn't seem to accept the fact that Lily might be dead. She was known to be sitting in a corner of the common room, mumbling to herself.

The Gryffindors seemed to be surprised at the appearance of Petunia in their Tower, but as soon as word spread that she was Lily's sister, they mostly just left her alone. She mainly stayed in the library or common room all day except for meals and ignored everybody anyhow.

Those who didn't know about their Heads' plight was apparently enlightened at dinner the first night back, and most of the other students just avoided the Marauders, Sarah, and Laurie. All of them but the Slytherins, that is.

Remus had a nagging suspicion that Severus Snape knew something nobody else did—he always seemed to be strutting around the school, giving the other students looks that clearly said, "I'm better than you!"

Remus sighed and slammed his Potions book shut. The essay on Amortentia would have to wait. He shoved his things into his bag and stood up to deposit them in the dormitory. He got many sympathetic looks as he crossed the common room, but he just ignored them.

He then left the common room to visit Sirius. Madame Tramel, the ancient and feeble witch who currently ran the infirmary, was cranky and only rarely allowed her patients visitors. She was only at Hogwarts because the old nurse, Madame Pomfrey, mysteriously disappeared in November after a trip to St. Mungo's, and nobody knew where she was. Dumbledore had told Madame Tramel that Remus, Sarah, and Laurie were to be allowed to visit Sirius at any time. Peter was in the infirmary anyways because of his stag problem, so he could see Sirius. Madame Tramel had only grudgingly obliged.

"It's you again, Lupin?" she asked grumpily as he walked inside.

"Yes it is, Sirius _is _my friend, after all."

"Yes, about him—I can't seem to cure his depression," she said, 'He says he's only going to get better if and when Potter gets back."

"Well, yeah, he's Sirius' best friend," Remus said impatiently, "When one's best friend is possibly…" he couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence, "…usually one feels sad and depressed."

Madame Tramel merely grunted in reply, and Remus walked to the end of the infirmary, where Sirius' bed was.

He was a wreck—purple bags underneath his eyes, pale as any ghost, and laying on his back, muttering to himself. "Sirius?" Remus said.

Sirius' head snapped over. "Hey," he said quietly.

"We've only got an essay on Amortentia for Slughorn, but he said you don't have to do it."

"Ok."

"Sirius, I told you on the second, Dumbledore will bring them back."

"Yeah."

"Sirius, you swear to me that once Prongs comes back you'll turn back into the Padfoot I knew before Christmas."

"Sure."

"Padfoot, one of these days James is going to burst through the doors during breakfast and you're going to miss it because you're up here!" Remus told him sternly, "Can't you just come down for meals?"

"No."

"C'mon, Sirius! Just for breakfast, then, I feel really lonely without you there…"

"No."

"Padfoot," Remus said, attempting to keep his temper in check, "if Prongs was here now and saw you like this, what would he say?"

"I dunno."

"He'd be furious! He wouldn't want his best friend to give up just because he's missing, would he?"

"No."

"Exactly. Just come down for breakfast, c'mon, it'll do you good to get out of bed every morning. Be at the Gryffindor table at seven thirty, no exceptions."

"Fine."

"Sirius, you're scaring me. You need to cheer up a bit. Prongs'll be back soon, but don't waste all this time worrying about him!"

"You do."

"Well, sure, I worry about him, but I'm not in depression because of it! Just try to be a bit of the old Padfoot I knew before—maybe not all of him, but just a little. It'll do you a world of good."

"I'll try."

"Ok," Remus said, standing up, "Tomorrow at seven thirty, Sirius!"

"See you," Sirius answered quietly.

Sirius lay in his bed, watching Remus' retreating back. Moony was really annoyed…of course, it didn't help that the full moon was coming up, but that was beside the point.

He honestly didn't know why he couldn't cheer up. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried—Cheering Charms, Potions to Induce Euphoria…nothing seemed to work. Perhaps his sorrow was just too great to be cured by anything but James' return.

Remus was arguing with Madame Tramel, presumably about Sirius going down to breakfast every morning. Finally, Madame Tramel seemed to have given in. Remus left the infirmary looking satisfied.

She walked huffily over to Sirius' bed. "You're to go down to breakfast every morning at seven thirty, apparently."

"I know."

"Fine then," Madame Tramel said shortly, and left Sirius alone to brood. He glanced at the clock on the wall—it was nearly six thirty. Sighing, Sirius rolled over on his bed. There wasn't much to do in the Hospital Wing in the middle of the evening…or at any time, for that matter. Sirius was almost glad that Remus was forcing him to go to breakfast. It gave him something to look forward to…

* * *

The next morning, Remus sat at the Gryffindor table at seven twenty-five, waiting for Sirius. Thankfully, there weren't many Slytherins up yet.

Ten minutes went by, and Sirius still had not appeared. _Well, he was never known for being punctual, _Remus thought wryly.

Finally, at seven forty, Sirius walked into the Great Hall. The Gryffindors, Ravenclaws, and Hufflepuffs all looked surprised, and the Slytherins ignored him entirely. Remus beckoned him over, and he sat down, piling his plate with food.

"Thanks, Moony." he said abruptly.

"For what?" Remus asked, startled.

"For talking to me about Prongs. I needed it."

Any time."

They chatted for the rest of the meal, then Sirius made his way up to the Hospital Wing, while Remus headed to Charms.

Professor Flitwick was very sympathetic to all the Gryffindors since Christmas, and usually did not give homework as a result. Unless, of course, there was a helpless case.

Kelsi Tigeth was having problems with wandless magic, and Lea Schuman was hardly better off. They could not even cast a "Wingardium Leviosa" spell properly, while some of the class was already working on Summoning Charms.

Flitwick was losing his vast amount of patience with them. "Girls, it's not that difficult!" he squeaked.

Kelsi was red-faced, but from anger or from concentration Remus could not tell. Lea, however, said, "Professor, we're trying!"

"I can see that. But do you not think that you can try harder?"

Nobody got Charms homework that night but Kelsi and Lea-to practice.

The rest of the day passed quickly, and Remus was soon in the Hospital Wing again, talking with Sirius. He seemed to have opened up a small bit after the night before. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "I can feel that Prongs is going to come back soon. Just instinctively, you know what I mean?"

Remus shook his head, and Sirius laughed slightly. Remus hoped that meant that he was slowly coming out of his deep blue funk. "Just trust me."


	12. XII

**XII.**

Lily put her hand out of the window, quickly wiped the accumulation of snow away, and waved it energetically in the owl's direction. It didn't see her. Scowling, she hurried over to her food plate and grabbed the slice of bread. "Hopefully I'll have more to eat than this soon enough…" she muttered as she put her hand out of the window, offering the bird her food. "You!" she called after it, her voice barely above a whisper. "Come over here!"

Whether the owl heard her or was attracted by the food she would never know, but all that mattered to her at that moment was that the owl was now flying in the air toward her. It ate the moldy bread, and looked at Lily expectantly.

"Bring this letter to Albus Dumbledore, all right?" Lily whispered to the owl, petting its back, "But don't let him send a reply back."

The owl hooted softly, as if it knew that she didn't want to be overheard. "Get it there as soon as possible, that was dinner you just ate!" Lily said, not quite reproachful, but still serious. "Fly to Dumbledore, I don't care if it's two in the morning, knock on his window or something. Just make sure he gets this as soon as possible—my life depends on it!"

The owl hooted again and flew away into the night. Sighing happily, Lily curled up in the corner of her cell. _The letter is on its way…I'm going to get out of this dump… _and with that contented thought she drifted off to sleep.

* * *

When James awoke, he saw Lily and Arthur both fast asleep. _Shouldn't one of them be keeping watch? _he wondered to himself. _What if an owl came in the night and they missed it?_

"_Evans!" _he roared across the hallway.

She sat up quickly. "What?"

"What are you doing asleep?" he asked furiously. "And don't tell me Arthur has it, he's asleep too!"

"Oh, about that," Lily said, a twinkle in her eye James had not seen since they were at Hogwarts, "an owl…"

Poppy sat bolt upright. She had apparently been listening in. "An owl?" she asked faintly. "You…"

"Yep, it's gone," Lily said happily, "on its way to Hogwarts and Dumbledore."

Poppy grinned too. "I can't believe it! Arthur!"

He sat up groggily. "Wazzamata?"

"Lily got an owl last night!" Poppy said excitedly.

"Really? From who?" he asked, still confused.

"Not that, Weasley, an owl showed up last night and is now in its way to Hogwarts!"

His mind sharpened instantly. "Are you serious?" Poppy nodded. "Lily, this is wonderful! But now all we can do is wait…" he instantly fell silent at the sound of footsteps coming down the hallway. Lily's insides squirmed—they had been lucky the past few days, but she knew their luck wouldn't hold…

"Hm…" the Death Eater said, "which should I bring up?" none of them said anything. "I think the blood traitor," he said finally.

"Which one?" Arthur spat.

"Well, I meant Potter, but I might want to teach you to respect your superiors," the Death Eater commented. "Maybe this'll teach you a lesson." He unlocked the door to Arthur's cell with a flick of his wand, and with another, Arthur was in the air and soaring down the hallway. He gave them a reassuring smile, but James was not convinced. He had heard rumors that people tortured at the hands of Voldemort often did not come out sane…

Distantly, a door slammed, and Lily broke into sobs. "What if…what if he…"

"Arthur'll be fine," Poppy reassured her, "Voldemort won't kill him."

This did not seem to soothe Lily at all. She continued to cry buckets, and James and Poppy spent a long hour waiting for their friend to return.

When he did, flying through the air, James couldn't believe his eyes. Arthur was hardly recognizable, and obviously out in a dead faint. His face was full of cuts and bruises, and one of his eyes was swollen shut. One of his arms stuck out at a strange angle, and his hair resembled an erupting volcano.

"You'd better send someone to fix him!" Poppy screamed at the Death Eater. "He'll die if you don't!"

"I know that," the Death Eater sneered, "I've got a buddy that does that for a job, very reluctantly I might add." He walked away down the hall, presumably to get the Healing Death Eater.

"Arthur!" Poppy yelled across the hallway, "Arthur, do something!" He did not move or respond. She began to sob.

"Poppy, you don't want him to wake up now!" James told her reasonably, "Think of all the pain he'd be in!"

She eventually cried herself to sleep, and James was left to wait for the Healing Death Eater to come down.

Ten minutes passed, then half an hour. Growing impatient, James started to pace around his small cell, glancing longingly at his empty food plate. He had learned the pattern of food—one slice of bread and a glass of water—and how often it came—every other day—very quickly.

Sighing again, his stomach rumbling loudly, he sat down by the door. He saw the Death Eater coming down the hall, looking extremely grumpy. Grumbling to himself, he began to heal Arthur. He didn't even seem to notice that James was awake, or even there.

After about ten minutes, the Death Eater left, and James looked across the hall at Arthur. All of his cuts and bruises were gone, but the Death Eater didn't bother to clean off the blood.

Arthur was still out cold, and James was worried. What had Voldemort done to him? He sat in his cell, alone, and waited for something to happen.

When nothing did he began to fantasize about Hogwarts, something he had never done before. Up to that point, he had viewed the castle as a place to hang with his friends, flirt unsuccessfully with Lily, and pull pranks. But now, he saw it in a whole different light—as his home.

"Well, any place would be better than here," he thought grumpily, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

Lily woke up late the next night, and saw James fast asleep in his cell, completely intact. She looked at Poppy, who was awake—she was fine, too. "How's Arthur?" she asked quietly.

"He was worse before the Healer came down. I'm not sure what's keeping him out though, I can't see any external wounds."

Lily was worried, "Will he be all right?"

"I think so, but he should be awake by now, it's been nearly a day and a half…"

The two lapsed into silence, waiting for whatever the day would bring.

About two hours later, Lily heard a groan from the cell next to her, and then Arthur's voice, "Where am I?"

"You're in your cell; it's January fifth. You've been out for a day and a half and Lily's been worried sick about you!"

"Have I really?" Arthur said, sounding confused, "The last thing I remember was the Cruciatus Curse…"

"Well, that would make sense, because you would have passed out because of it."

"Yeah…" his voice trailed off.

"We'll get revenge, don't worry," Poppy reassured him.

"Will you really?" came a voice that made Lily's blood run cold. She had only heard that voice on one occasion in her life… "I was under the impression that you four were to stay here for quite a while."

"Our disappearances won't go unnoticed by the Ministry, or by Dumbledore. They'll try to find us," Poppy said confidently.

Lily had a horrendous thought—_did Voldemort intercepted the letter?_

"Oh, I'm sure they will," Voldemort said silkily, "but do you honestly think that they would look here?"

_Apparently he hasn't. Good._

"Dumbledore doesn't trust the Malfoys," Arthur said defiantly, "If he finds out where Malfoy Manor is, he'd look here."

Voldemort looked skeptical. "But you know, I only came down here for the Mudblood, not for small talk. So…" he flicked his wand, and Lily's cell door swung open, "I'll be seeing you all."

Lily flew out of her cell, much like Arthur had, and Voldemort levitated her through the hallways of Malfoy Manor. She was slammed into numerous walls and doors on the way to their destination, and by the time Voldemort set her down again, Lily's whole body was aching.

"Hm…where to start, where to start…" Voldemort said, "Let's start with…this!" he waved his wand, and Lily felt her ankles break. She fell to the floor and bit back a scream. "Yes, you are a stubborn one…feisty, red-headed Mudblood…"

He contemplated her for a moment-blood-red, merciless eyes met vibrantly green, defiant ones. He seemed to have made up his mind, however, because he lifted his wand and muttered an incantation that she could not make out.

Her limbs began to bend in strange angles-backwards, frontward, sideways…Voldemort soon had her in a human pretzel, and it was extremely painful. Lily again bit back a scream as he stretched her limbs a bit more. A bit more, and she felt one of her muscles tear in two. She screamed-so loudly that Voldemort _flinched_ and dropped the spell. Lily once again, fell to the ground and clutched her leg, where the muscle had torn apart.

For the next hour, Voldemort put different spells on her, often using the Cruciatus, and Lily did her best not to show any weakness. Some of the spells that he used attacked her mind, and those were the ones she hated the most. Her mind was supposed to be her private sanctuary, but he was looking through her memories as if they were nothing…

She saw the curse coming out of Voldemort's wand, saw it flying towards her, but she was immobilized by her ankles and could not move. The curse struck her, and she passed out, grateful for the release from the pain.

* * *

James woke up and looked across the hall—Lily was gone. Panicking, he asked Arthur, "Where's Lily?"

Arthur hesitated, but James glared at him and he hastily continued, "Voldemort took her about half an hour ago."

James cursed loudly. "What did he want?"

"He didn't say, he just said that he 'came down for the Mudblood'. There was nothing we could do to stop him."

James withdrew into the back corner of his small cell. He didn't think he would be able to look at Lily if she looked as bad as Arthur had…

Half an hour passed, and nothing happened. Then he heard footsteps coming down the hall. He closed his eyes—for once in his life, he didn't want to see her…

He heard a gasp from Poppy, and knew that his worst fears had been confirmed. But then he heard a tentative voice. "James?" It was Arthur.

"Yes?" he said, his eyes still shut tightly.

"She doesn't look as bad as I did. At least, I don't think she does."

James willed his eyes open, and then walked to the door of his cell to get a good look at Lily. It was true, she wasn't as bloody as Arthur had been, but her ankles looked broken, and she had a long, jagged gash across her cheek. She had many other cuts and bruises, but her hair didn't look like an erupting volcano as Arthur's had.

"That cut'll leave a scar," Poppy said regretfully, "it looks pretty bad."

James sighed. He was ten feet away from the love of his life, and he couldn't get any closer to hold her when she needed him…

Fifteen minutes later, the Death Eater came down and healed Lily. When he left, her ankles looked healed, and the cuts were gone, but Poppy was right—there was a thin, white scar across her cheek where the gash had been.

James sighed unhappily and went back to the corner of his cell, grabbing the long-awaited bread and water as he went. No matter how disgusting it tasted, it was still food…

He sighed once again and thought about what he could be doing at the moment at Hogwarts. Well, judging by the darkness outside Lily's window, he would be asleep, but he'd be sleeping in a bed at least. As he felt himself drifting off to sleep, he heard a voice in his head that sounded oddly like Dumbledore's say, _"Don't give up."

* * *

_

Lily groaned and looked around. Where was she? It certainly wasn't her cell at Malfoy Manor…

She started when she realized that she was in the Hogwarts Great Hall, and it was breakfast time. She was standing behind Remus and Sirius, who were in deep discussion about something or other.

However, she tuned out their conversation when she realized what she was standing in front of—a whole table of _food_. She reached out her hand excitedly, but it went right through it. Sighing, she turned back to Remus' and Sirius' argument.

"It's the eighth, Moony, and Dumbledore still doesn't know where they are!" _It's the eighth? What happened to the sixth and seventh?_

"Maybe he's biding his time, Padfoot! Dumbledore will get them back eventually!"

The boys continued to argue, so Lily walked down the table looking for Sarah and Laurie. She was surprised to see Petunia sitting with them as well. _What is she doing here?_

"Where do you think they are?" Sarah asked sullenly. "If Dumbledore doesn't know where they are, there really isn't any hope…"

"If Dumbledore has any idea or clue as to where they are, I'm sure he'd act upon it. Even if it was as far-fetched as them being locked in the dungeons _here_." Laurie assured her, "Dumbledore will find them, don't worry…"

Lily's vision began to blur, and she was again in her cell at Malfoy Manor. She groaned and sat up. James was snoring uproarishly across the hall, and Poppy was looking at her with concern. "Are you all right? How are you?"

Lily put her hand to her cheek, and was not surprised to feel a scar there. That slicing jinx had really hurt…

"I suppose I'm fine. Did the Death Eater fix me or did you?"

"The Death Eater, but he botched up your cheek. I should be able to fix it for the most part once I get a wand."

"Excellent," Lily said. Then, remembering her dream, she said, "Do you know if you can have visions of what's going on in other places while you're asleep?"

Poppy stared at her. "Not that I know of…"

"Because I just had a dream in the Great Hall, and everyone was there, and they were really worried about us and everything…"

James sat up and yelled with joy when he saw Lily awake. "You're alive!" he said exuberantly.

"Of course I am, Potter, I'm no weakling," Lily said jokingly.

"You said something about a weird dream…"

"Yeah, I was in the Great Hall but nobody could see me, and Remus and Sirius were arguing and Sarah and Laurie and Petunia were dead worried…"

James stared at her, dumbstruck. "You were there but nobody could see you?" she nodded. "That's what happened to me after I blacked out, only I was in the common room…"

"So you think it's really happening?" Lily said worriedly. "It didn't sound like they had gotten the letter yet…Sirius said Dumbledore didn't know anything."

James swore. "What's taking that owl so bloody long?"

"I dunno, maybe Hogwarts is farther away than we thought."

* * *

Nearly a week later, nothing had happened but Voldemort paying Lily and James some more visits, and the weather seemingly worsening—Lily and Arthur got the brunt of it, with windows in their cells, but Poppy and James were also constantly freezing cold. James had acquired a long red scar down his neck.

Lily was thinking about the owl that she had sent on its way to Hogwarts a week and a half ago. Surely it would be there by now? She really hoped it was…

Lily looked across the hall at James, who was sound asleep, and again snoring ridiculously loudly. The scar on his neck showed vividly against his pale skin. His robes were ripped in countless places, and he was filthy. Lily supposed that she couldn't look much better. Arthur had to mend James' glasses each time Voldemort came around. Lily didn't see the point, but he said that he couldn't see a thing without them.

It had been more than three weeks since they had been kidnapped; two weeks of school they had missed…

_Don't think about that, _she told herself sternly. _Just go to sleep and hope you get rescued soon, _so that's what she did.


	13. XIII

**XIII.**

Sirius was sadder than ever—another week had gone by and Dumbledore still didn't know where James and Lily were. Remus had convinced him to come down for lunch and dinner as well as breakfast, which was a plus. The hospital food was horrible, and Madame Tramel certainly didn't make life any easier…

January 14th…almost two weeks of Prong-less Hogwarts. It just wasn't the same without him—the common room was much quieter than it had been last term, and everyone kept treating him and his friends as if they were fragile and might break. Sirius hated that the most—he wished they would just leave him alone!

The full moon had been a few days ago, and Remus had been miserable without James. It just wasn't as much fun without him.

"Mail's here," he remarked glumly to Remus. The only mail he had ever gotten was a Howler from his parents after he had been sorted into Gryffindor, but Mr. and Mrs. Lupin often wrote to Remus. However, he wasn't expecting anything today, as he had received a letter from his parents the day before.

Remus poked him on the arm, jolting him out of his reverie. "Have you ever seen that owl before?" he asked, pointing at an owl that was flying towards Professor Dumbledore.

"Nope," Sirius said. The owl looked completely exhausted; its feathers were ruffled and it kept sinking lower and lower as it flew towards the Headmaster. Fortunately, he noticed and caught the bird from the air. Fascinated, Sirius and Remus watched as Dumbledore took the battered piece of parchment from the owl's talons. _Why wasn't it tied to it?_ Sirius wondered, _and why isn't it sealed properly?_

Dumbledore unrolled the parchment, and stared at it for a moment, looking taken aback. Then his eyes began to read the letter, becoming wider each second. At the bottom, the color drained from his face and he closed his eyes, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. He passed the letter to McGonagall, whose gray eyes read through it quickly. She also looked quite shocked.

Dumbledore said something to her; she nodded and passed the letter down the staff table. Each teacher's reaction was the same—either shock or panic showing in their eyes. Hagrid, seated at the end of the table, got up, walked behind the table, and asked Dumbledore a question. When he answered, Hagrid became very pale and passed the letter to Slughorn, on Dumbledore's left. All of their reactions were the same.

Dumbledore stood up. The rest of the Hall looked at him confusedly. Apparently they had not been paying attention to him at all.

"I need all students to return to their common room. You will be skipping your first lesson." There were some confused mutterings, but most of the Hall was staring at Dumbledore, waiting for an explanation. "Your Heads of Houses will explain it to you."

There was scraping and clanging as the students stood up to go back to their common rooms. Some wore confused looks, but most looked worried. "What do you reckon this is about?" Laurie asked Sirius and Remus as they climbed the Grand Staircase.

"It's got something to do with a battered letter from an exhausted, unknown owl that's worrying all of the teachers," Remus informed her, "At least, that's what it looked like."

"Do you think that it has anything to do with Lily and James?" Sarah said hopefully.

Remus looked thoughtful. "I dunno, we'll just have to wait for McGonagall to come up."

* * *

Albus Dumbledore was in deep conversation with Minerva—he thought that the Chudley Cannons would win the Quidditch Cup, but she was firm that the Holyhead Harpies were going to win.

"Albus," Horace said suddenly, "look at that owl!"

He looked up, and saw a small tawny owl persistently making its way towards him. It looked completely exhausted, and it had a crumpled roll of parchment clutched in its talons.

Dumbledore reached out and grabbed the owl. He put it on the table after taking the parchment, and the owl instantly began drinking out of Dumbledore's goblet. Minerva looked annoyed, but Dumbledore was staring at the roll of parchment.

The letter was addressed to him, but it was nearly illegible. Scratching-outs covered the parchment. Overcoming his shock, he began to read,

_Professor Dumbledore,_

_Damien and Lucius Malfoy are Death Eaters._ (Dumbledore felt his eyes widen. He had always wondered, but he wasn't sure…)_ Their home is Voldemort's major hideout, and we _(We? Who's we?) _think that Voldemort and other Death Eaters live there. _(Joy…) _There are at least four prisoners in Malfoy's dungeon. _(Dungeon? There are dungeons in his house?)_ We know this for a fact because we are the prisoners—we are trapped in Malfoy Manor, captives of Lord Voldemort. _(My goodness! That can't be good!)_ Because two of us are still in school, it is imperative that we get out as soon as possible. _(Could they possibly be Lily and James? Are they alive?)_ Please, we would appreciate it if you could help us. Do not reply to this, because if Malfoy intercepted it, we would be in huge trouble._ (Good thinking.)_ And, sorry about the messiness of it, we could only nick one piece of parchment. _(Oh, that explains it!)

_Sincerely, AW, PP, LE _(Lily Evans?)_, and JP _(James Potter?)

_P.S.-(JP) I'm starving down here! Come and give us some food! Oh, and save us too! _(Just like Mr. Potter.)

_P.P.S-(LE) Oh, come on JP, you'll survive! _(Lily reprimanding James…)

Overwhelmed with it all, Dumbledore closed his eyes, which had become as big as saucers. Malfoy was a Death Eater and James and Lily were prisoners at his manor…

Minerva elbowed him, and he wordlessly handed her the letter. Her eyes scanned down it quickly, and by the time she finished, she looked just like Dumbledore felt.

"Pass it down the table," Dumbledore told her quietly. She nodded and passed it to Filius. Dumbledore inspected each of his teachers' reactions, and they were all the same-shocked, panicked, or in Filch's case, confused.

Hagrid, seated at the far end of the table, got up and walked over to Dumbledore. "'s it…'s it Lily an' James?"

"Yes, I believe it is," Dumbledore answered gravely. Hagrid paled considerably and passed the letter to Horace. All of their reactions were the same.

Dumbledore had made up his mind. Standing up and causing the Hall to become silent, he said, "I need all students to return to their common rooms. You will be skipping your first lesson." He waited for the mutterings to die down, and, seeing the confused looks, added, "Your Heads of Houses will explain it to you."

* * *

Sirius and Remus waited impatiently by the fire for McGonagall to come and give them an explanation. Sarah's question had struck both fear and hope into Sirius' heart. Surely the whole staff wouldn't have looked shocked if something good had happened, but none of them were crying, which meant that it wasn't anything really bad…

His musings were interrupted by the appearance of Professor McGonagall. Sirius and Sarah were in front of her so fast that she didn't even have time to register who they were. "Er…oh! Mr. Black and Miss Kellison!" she said after staring at them for a moment. "If you'll step back, I'll tell you why you're all up here." She didn't have her normally crisp tone; rather, it was gentle and friendly. Bewildered, Sirius and Sarah stepped back, standing at the front of the large crowd of red-and-black clad Gryffindors.

"Now," McGonagall began, "Professor Dumbledore received an…anonymous plea for help, from an owl that seemed to have traveled a long way, on a crumpled, nearly illegible piece of parchment. However, there were two post-scripts that lead him to believe that the letter is from at least two people—two people you should all know.

"The post-scripts were, 'I'm starving down here! Come and give us some food! Oh, and save us too!', and 'Oh, come on, you'll survive!'" McGonagall said.

Silence reigned for a moment before Sarah gasped, and had to hold onto Sirius for support. "James is always hungry, and Lily is always yelling at him…" she passed out in a dead faint. Sirius caught her and put her in the nearest armchair.

"Yes, as Miss Kellison said, Professor Dumbledore does believe that it is Mr. Potter and Miss Evans. Now, the question is saving them…"

"Saving them?" Remus said sharply, pushing to the front of the crowd to be with Sirius. "Saving them from what?"

"It is not my duty to answer that question, Mr. Lupin."

"But Professor!" he argued. Many people were staring at him wonderingly_. Remus Lupin, talk back to a teacher?_

"I'm sure Mr. Potter will inform you when he returns."

"So he's coming back?" Sirius said excitedly, "When?

"When he is rescued," McGonagall said shortly. She was turning back into her normal, strict self. "I would like to tell you more, but Professor Dumbledore forbids me to do so. I will give you more information if and when it becomes available." And with that, she turned around and crawled out of the portrait hole. The whole Gryffindor house stared after her.

"What now?" asked Laurie, breaking the silence.

* * *

Ten minutes later, all of the Heads were back but Minerva. Pomona was panting. "My Hufflepuffs! I tell them it might be Mr. Potter and Miss Evans, and they explode with questions! I only just got away!"

"It seems like Minerva is having the same problem," Dumbledore observed, "Of course, they wouldn't be Gryffindors if they weren't worried about their classmates…"

Minerva walked in, an angry look on her face. "Black, Lupin, and Kellison nearly trampled me with questions! Black and Kellison wanted to know everything, and Lupin wanted to know what we would be saving them from…."

"But Minerva," Dumbledore said patiently, "Mr. Potter and Miss Evans are their best friends! What do you expect?"

"Well, yes, but…"

"Oh Minerva, let it go," Filius said, "We shouldn't be arguing about this."

"Of course we shouldn't. Now, we have a rescue mission to plan…"

* * *

Sarah came to, her head soaked. "What was that for?" she asked defensively. Sirius grinned at her, bucket in hand.

"I just thought I should wake you up. You don't want to miss the party!"

"What is there to celebrate?" Sarah asked skeptically.

"Hm…" Sirius said, pretending to think, "James and Lily are alive, duh!"

"Oh…" Sarah said, not convinced. "I suppose that's a reason to celebrate…"

"Look, Sarah," Sirius said seriously, "Once they get back, I'll throw a party to put this one to shame. Bigger than this one and the one after we beat Slytherin by 500 points in one Quidditch game!"

"All right," Sarah said, sighing. She was not really in the mood for a party…

* * *

Minerva sighed and looked around her Transfiguration classroom—only three-quarters of her class was there. She almost set Kristin in charge while she went to Gryffindor Tower to drag all of them off to class, when Albus' words struck home. James and Lily were important to her Gryffindors—she expected that Black had started a huge party because they were alive. She decided that she would let them party…today.

Aaron Killvian, a Ravenclaw prefect, raised his hand. "Yes?" McGonagall said.

"Where are all the Gryffindors?"

"I expect throwing a party in their common room, why?"

"What for?" Aaron asked, looking peeved. "Why don't they have to come to class?"

"What house do Mr. Potter and Miss Evans belong to?"

"Gryffindor…"

"Right. So if one of your housemates was missing, and then you found out that he was alive, you'd want to party, right?"

"I s'pose," Aaron mumbled.

"Exactly. So don't expect to see any Gryffindors today."

Aaron fell silent, and Minerva continued with their lesson. It was quite amusing—for her, anyways—to watch a seventh year Transfiguration class. They were working on human Transfiguration, and strange things often happened. Because they were minus ten students, it was easier for Minerva to observe everyone.

Today they were supposed to be changing their hands into hooks. Aaron had managed, after half an hour, to sharpen his fingernails, but nobody had advanced farther than that. Minerva sighed. She was sure that Mr. Potter would have been able to do it…

She shook her head, clearing it. The looks on Kellison and Black's faces nearly killed her. They were hopeless…Mr. Potter and Miss Evans needed to get back; the sooner the better.

She turned her thoughts to the escape plan they had begun to map out. It was risky…Dumbledore had even said that there was a chance that a few of them would not survive, but all of them had still agreed to do it. Minerva's job was to figure out _when _to do it. Her immediate thought was that weekend, but then she realized that it needed a while to set up. Ministry reinforcements would be needed, as well.

A yell cut off her train of thought. Looking around her classroom, she realized that Severus Snape had somehow turned his head into a chicken's, and was running madly around her classroom.

She waved her wand distractedly, and Snape's head reappeared, wearing a very confused expression. All the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were laughing their heads off, and the Slytherins were looking sulky.

"All right, all right, settle down!" Minerva said sternly, "I want to see some improvement!"

By the time the lesson had ended, a few more students had changed their fingernails, but nothing more. Sighting, she transfigured the students' nails back, and dismissed them to lunch. She followed soon after. As she sat down, Albus said, "So, any ideas?"

"It'll have to wait until next week at least," she explained in an undertone, "because it'll take a while to get ready, and it might be good to get Aurors involved too."

"You make a good point," Dumbledore said thoughtfully. He looked up at the Great Hall and noticed the deserted Gryffindor table. "Partying, I suppose?"

"Yes, Mr. Black, I'm sure, has started a huge party."

"That would be just like him. Now, I want to cause him to throw another one, Merlin knows they need it. Meet me in my office today right after the last class, we can sort out everything and get the Ministry involved there."

Minerva nodded, and told Filius, who proceeded to pass the message down the table. Dumbledore did the same thing down the other side.

* * *

The rest of the afternoon passed uneventfully enough, and Dumbledore was soon sitting in his office, waiting for his staff to come up. He still didn't believe that they had all agreed whole-heartedly to his plan; it was extremely dangerous and Albus wasn't sure everyone would survive it. None of them seemed to care; they only cared about getting Lily and James back to Hogwarts. That's why he appreciated them so much…teachers willing to risk their lives for those of their students.

He looked up as the door opened, and soon every teacher at Hogwarts was standing in front of him.

"Excellent," Albus said, "now, about Mr. Potter and Miss Evans…"

* * *

Sarah hated to admit it, but she was having fun. McGonagall's promise that Lily would be back soon heightened her mood slightly, enough that she could enjoy the party Sirius, and surprisingly, Remus, had set up. She had a hard time believing that they could throw a better one, but she had come to the conclusion that the Marauders could do anything. This one was already spectacular, however, and everyone seemed to be having a blast.

She made her way over to Remus, and said, "Didn't Dumbledore say we would be missing our first class? It's nearly lunchtime!"

"Yeah, well, nobody's said anything, so why bother?"

The Gryffindors had no need to go down to lunch or dinner—Sirius had talked a few house elves into bringing them food—so it was about ten o'clock before anyone realized what time it was.

"Merlin!" Sarah said, checking her watch, "_Sonorus_," she muttered, and then said, "Does anyone know what time it is?"

The room quieted as people checked their watches.

"10 pm," Anthony, a sixth year and Frank's friend, volunteered.

"Right. Now…" she released her wand, as there was no need for it, "I know I'm no prefect, but Frank is Head Boy and has every right to tell you what to do."

Frank stood up from where he was sitting by the fire. "Right, I want first and second years in bed _now_!" many mutterings followed this announcement. "C'mon! We've been partying all day, off to bed!"

They walked up the dormitory stairs, still grumbling. "Third and fourth years in bed by 11, and fifth and sixth years by 12." he ordered.

"What about seventh years?" a third year asked, annoyed.

"By 12:30." Frank said.

"Oh, thanks a lot," Sarah said jokingly, "But you can bet that Sirius will be up later than that!"

"I just said that to shut them up. They won't know the difference anyways."


	14. XIV

**XIV.**

Lily awoke and looked across the hall for James—he was gone. Lily's breath caught in her throat—Voldemort had him somewhere upstairs…

She hated the powerlessness she had in her cell the most—even more than the lack of food or separation from Hogwarts. When one of her friends was hurt, she couldn't hug them or help them physically, and she knew for a fact that it helped.

Her mind turned, once again, to the letter they had sent so long ago. It had been over two weeks—the longest two weeks of her life. Hopefully the owl had reached Hogwarts, and Dumbledore was organizing a rescue mission. She wasn't sure how they would get them out, but there wasn't a doubt in her mind that he would try.

There was noting to do, so she decided to go to sleep again. Just as she was drifting off, she heard the footsteps that usually announced the arrival of a Death Eater. She awakened instantly, and looked down the hallway. Malfoy junior was walking towards her, levitating James ahead of him. He looked bad, if the circumstances were normal. But compared to what she was used to seeing, he looked about average.

_What's happening to me? _she thought angrily, _It's pretty bad when you start to think that broken bones, cuts, scrapes, and bruises are normal…_resigning herself, she sat back down to keep vigil until the Healing Death Eater arrived.

Half an hour later, he came down, grumbling as usual. Lily didn't see what he had to complain about—she was sure that he got three square meals a day and that he got to move around more than her six-by-eight cell…

He healed James and left. James woke up half an hour later. "Where am I?" he asked groggily

"Take a guess," Lily said sarcastically.

"It's just…I had one of those funny dreams again."

"Really? What was happening?"

"Well, I was in the Gryffindor common room again, and everyone seemed to be in the middle of a party." he explained.

"Party?"

"I heard someone say, 'They're alive!' Maybe they got our letter!"

"Did Sirius look happy?"

"Yeah, he did! They _must _have gotten it! There's no other explanation!

Lily smiled half-heartedly. She had not truly smiled for weeks, since the letter had successfully been sent. She suspected that she would not be happy until she was reunited with Hogwarts and its inhabitants…

"Why the long face?" James asked.

"Geez, let's think," Lily said sarcastically, "We're in a Death Eater's dungeon, we get disgusting food _every two days_, we get tortured by the _Dark Lord Voldemort_ regularly, I'm worried sick about my friends, and they're worried sick about me! Is that good reason to not look particularly cheerful?"

"I guess it is," James said thoughtfully.

"Of course it is, Potter!" Lily snapped, and walked over to the corner to sleep.

"What's with the 'Potter' deal going on, Lily?"

"Same reasons as earlier," she said angrily, and laid down, "plus the lack of a proper bed."

"Ah."

"If I had anything to throw at you," Lily said, "I would use it. Luckily for you, my cell is completely empty."

James snorted, and Lily put herself in the most comfortable position she could, and fell asleep. James stared at her. He hoped they got out of there soon, for Lily's sanity…

* * *

The staff of Hogwarts was grimly silent the next day, Remus noticed. Sure, it was Friday and all, but even Slughorn didn't have his usual gusto during lessons.

"What do you reckon is wrong with them?" Sirius asked Remus, confused, "They're all quiet-like…"

"I dunno, but if anything happens, they'll tell us."

At the end of Potions, Remus and Sirius walked up to Slughorn. Thinking that it would be better if he spoke, Remus said, "Professor, are you all right? You and the rest of the teachers have been really off today…"

"Oh, yes, I'm fine…" Slughorn said in an off-hand voice. "Actually, I want to ask you boys something—do you still have your Polyjuice Potion from last term?"

"Yeah, a flask…" Remus said slowly, "Why?'

"I would like to keep it," he said, "So, if you could bring it to me, I'd really appreciate it. And if you could get your friends' too, that would be even better…"

Remus nodded numbly and left with Sirius. "What does he need with our Polyjuice?"

"I dunno, did you add my hair to the whole flask or just to the one vial?"

"Just the one. We can get James', and Lily's and her friends'…and Frank's too." Remus listed off.

They went up to their dormitory, grabbed their Potions, asked for the girls', and proceeded down to Slughorn's office.

"Thank you boys so much! I knew I could count on you!" he beamed at them. Sirius looked taken aback—Slughorn had never smiled at him.

"Professor," Remus said carefully, "can you tell us what you need the Potion for?"

Slughorn looked sadly at them, "I'm sorry, boys, I really am. I would like to tell you, but I can't."

"You_ can't _or you _won't_?" Sirius asked.

"Can't. I'm forbidden to do so."

Sirius looked surprised, "All right…"

"But thank you so much! You have no idea how important this is!" Slughorn said happily.

They nodded, left the office, and went down to dinner.

"It's been a strange week," Sirius informed Remus as he dug into his steak.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Remus said, rolling his eyes.

* * *

"It's been a strange week," Dumbledore muttered to himself. He was, once again, sitting behind his desk in his office waiting for his staff to arrive. They would have put their plan into action this weekend to get Lily and James out, but they had decided against it, and were instead going to carry it out on Friday, the twenty-second.

His staff filed in, looking unusually grave. "You all know why you are here," Dumbledore said, looking at each of them in turn. "If you would like to back out now, I would completely understand. You all are putting their lives on the line."

"We don't care," Sue Silez, the Defense teacher, said fiercely, speaking for the whole group. "If we die saving James and Lily, at least we'd be dying for a noble cause."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as the rest of the teachers nodded. "Very well, we must discuss our plan. Four of us, presumably the heads, correct?" they nodded, and he continued, "You will drink the Polyjuice Potion and become four Death Eaters. You will pretend to take them somewhere, when in fact you will be handing them Portkeys to Hogsmeade.

"The rest of us," Dumbledore said, gesturing around at the rest of the staff, "will cause a distraction so that they can escape safely. You will all have Portkeys for any wounded. As you know, the Ministry has refused to help us. I have been able to pull some strings in the Auror department, however, so we will have a small Auror force helping us.

"Are there any question?" he asked finally.

Minerva said, "What if Mr. Potter and Miss Evans want to join the battle for revenge? Knowing them, they would want to!"

"Do not let them at all costs. I want Voldemort to think that we are attacking the Manor to get rid of Death Eaters, not to free the prisoners."

Minerva nodded. When nobody else posed any questions, Dumbledore said, "And, do not let any students know about this. I have arranged with the ghosts to tell them on Friday morning that classes are cancelled, and that all students are to stay in their common room."

The teachers nodded. "You may go."

They once again filed out of Dumbledore's study in grim silence. Dumbledore put his head in his hands. Their plan was easier said than done…

* * *

Remus and Sirius sat in the Gryffindor common room, talking with Sarah and Laurie. They had already told the girls about the Potion, and they were all trying to figure out why he would need it in a hurry.

After exhausting all possible ideas, a very discouraged Sirius said, "I have no idea why they would need the Potion! They have no good reason to!"

Sarah had to agree. "I can't think of anything. We'll just have to wait and see, I guess."

So they waited, and saw nothing during that weekend, and most of the following week. All of the teachers were still at the staff table, but they all still seemed very subdued all the time. It didn't stop McGonagall from twenty points from Gryffindor when Sirius turned Snape's hair into a neon pink afro on Thursday, though.

"It suited him, though!" Sirius yelled at her retreating back, while the Gryffindors laughed.

"Drop it, Padfoot," Remus said, annoyed. "She already seems to be at her wit's end about something or other…"

Sirius sobered as the truth of his words sunk in. "I guess you're right, but Marauder's Promise that the first thing Prongs is going to do when he comes back is prank Snape!"

"Marauder's Promise," Remus repeated, and they performed the sacred 'Marauder's Promise' handshake, which included many slaps and shouts. Remus remembered the days when James had wanted it to include a howl, but he had then reminded him that they were, then, the only ones out of hundreds of students at Hogwarts that knew of his "furry little problem".

Remus sighed as the Sunday wore on. Sirius had started a snowball fight with some other students. _What is taking James so long?

* * *

_

A figure in a black cloak descended the Grand Staircase into the Entrance Hall of Hogwarts in the early hours of the morning. He looked around approvingly at the thirty-odd figures clustered there. "Excellent…" he muttered, "All the Aurors are here?"

Receiving an affirmative answer, he said, "Good. I've arranged for the carriages to pick us up and bring us to Hogsmeade. Pass these Portkeys around, but only use them if somebody is critically injured and needs to go to St. Mungo's. Horace, I'm assuming you have the Potion? You will distribute it once we Apparate to the Manor. We don't want to make anyone in Hogsmeade panic at the sight of four Death Eaters there."

A rather wide figure nodded, and Dumbledore said, "Let's not waste any more time, out the doors!"

The group trooped out the door and toward the carriages waiting for them. Dumbledore shared a carriage with the four Heads as well as the Head Auror, Rufus Scrimgeour. _It'll be a miracle if we pull this off…

* * *

_

Sirius woke up at 6:00, sweating. "That nightmare was _horrible_," he muttered to himself, "bunnies are _evil_!"

He walked over to the window to cool off, and saw what looked to be the carriages moving across the lawn, away from Hogwarts. Still not completely awake, he stared at them, but then shrugged and went back to bed. _I can get another hour of sleep…" _he thought tiredly.

* * *

Lily snorted as James began talking in his sleep. Arthur and Poppy listened, amused, to his mutterings.

"Snivellus…attack with Bludgers…haha…"

"Who's Snivellus?" Arthur asked.

"Severus Snape, James hates him," Lily answered.

"Haha…die Snivellly die…no Mudblood…" his face contorted in anger, "Lily…not Mudblood…"

Lily snorted again. "Defending me in his sleep…"

"Full moon…have fun Moony…"

"Full moon?" Arthur repeated, "Is he a…?"

"No, the full moon was about a week ago," Lily explained, "It's his friend."

"Wow," Arthur said, "and he's at Hogwarts?"

"Dumbledore let him in. They've got something set up so that he doesn't attack anyone."

"Sh!" Poppy said, and they listened once again to what James was saying.

"Yeah…Padfoot…move in…hate family…sure…"

"One of his other friends moved in with him because the rest of his family hates him. He's the only Gryffindor in their whole family line; the rest of them are in Slytherin." Lily translated.

"Wow…" Arthur said, "James has certainly picked the people that needed friendship the most…a werewolf and a family outcast…"

"Wazzat?" James said groggily, waking up at last.

"We were just discussing your sleep talking. You mentioned attacking Snape with a Bludger, me, Remus, and Sirius."

"Did I really? I'm liking the attacking Snivellus part, I'm going to have to do that when we get back!"

Lily rolled her eyes. "The first thing _you're _going to do is eat, I'd bet!"

James looked thoughtful. "Yeah, but after that…" he smiled evilly, "Snivelly is _so _dead!"

"Let's concentrate on getting out alive first," Arthur said reasonably, "Hopefully Dumbledore has an idea…"

A loud snore greeted this statement. James had, once again, fallen asleep.

"Short attention span if I ever saw it," Poppy said, "he wasn't awake for even a minute!"

"Well, it's dark outside," Lily said, glancing out of the small window, "I think I'll turn in as well."


	15. XV

**XV.**

Sarah woke up at 6:30 and started getting ready to go down to breakfast. This involved waking up Laurie, taking a shower, doing her hair, and making sure she had her robes on correctly.

Wait…_since when have I needed to check that?_ Ever since January second, she supposed. But still, that was pretty pathetic…

She and Laurie went downstairs for breakfast at seven-thirty. There was something noticeably different about the school's atmosphere as soon as they set foot outside of the common room.

"It feels kinda unprotected," Laurie commented.

Sarah nodded her agreement. As they walked into the Great Hall, they saw most of the students staring at the staff table. As soon as they could see it properly, they looked at it as well. Laurie gasped beside Sarah-nobody was there.

Sarah and Laurie walked over to the Gryffindor table and sat with the Marauders. "Where do you reckon they are?" Sirius asked them.

"Dunno," Sarah said, mystified.

Just as the girls started helping themselves to eggs and bacon, Nearly Headless Nick appeared at the staff table. "If I could have your attention?" he called across the chattering Great Hall. Everyone fell silent, and he continued, "All classes are cancelled today. You are to stay in your common rooms all day, with no exceptions. I urge this not to inhibit you, but to protect you. The teachers will be away all day. Lunch and dinner will be sent up from the kitchens." He smiled slightly at the shocked looks he was receiving. "I'm sure everything will be explained tomorrow."

Once breakfast was finished, all of the students walked their separate to their common rooms, talking excitedly. "Where do you think they all are?" asked a very confused Sirius.

"Maybe they've gone to save James and Lily!" Peter said excitedly.

"Don't be stupid, Wormtail," Sirius chided him, "they'd at least _tell_ us if that was it."

Remus nodded his agreement, "But I do wish you were right."

* * *

The day was boring; Sirius, Remus, and Peter couldn't go anywhere because James had both the Invisibility Cloak and Marauder's Map in his trunk—back at his house. All of the Gryffindors stayed in the common room, obediently doing nothing, wondering what was going on.

And then, at half past four, a voice said, "Sirius, Remus, Peter, Sarah, Laurie, and Petunia, I need to talk to you. It's extremely urgent."

* * *

Dumbledore stood in Hogsmeade with his small force in front of him. "Right," he said, "We all now need to Apparate to the Manor. Meet you there!" and with that, he turned and disappeared with a small 'pop'.

Once everyone was situated, he said, "Right, Minerva, Horace, Filius, and Pomona, drink the Potion now. I'm assuming you've already added the bits of Death Eaters that I supplied you. Minerva will be Avery, Pomona will be Nott, Horace will be Malfoy, and Filius will be MacNair. You know what to do—take them and Portkey away. Do not come anywhere near the battle; they might try to fight."

He checked his watch. "Seven o'clock, let's go. You four first."

The Heads grimaced as they drank the Potion and soon four Death Eaters were standing in front of them.

"Excellent. Remember, you only have an hour. Be quick!"

They nodded and walked into the Manor. "Now, for the rest of us," Dumbledore turned to face them, "let's go cause some distraction!"

They laughed hollowly and followed Dumbledore inside.

* * *

Lily sat upright as she heard footsteps coming down the hallway. _Great…_she thought, _I'm not in the mood for this!_

She blanched as she registered the _four_ Death Eaters as Malfoy, MacNair, Avery, and Nott. "What do you want?" she asked defensively. The four stared at her.

"To get you out of here," Malfoy said finally.

"What are you talking about? You're the one that landed us here in the first place!"

Malfoy looked taken aback. Avery said, "Miss Evans, do you want to get back to Hogwarts or not?"

"Of course I do, but…"

James, Arthur, and Poppy had awoken as well. "Lily, what's going on?" came Arthur's voice.

"Four Death Eaters are down here claiming they're going to get us out!"

"Miss Evans," MacNair said, "We are _not_ going to hurt you!" A thought struck Lily—_usually the Death Eaters are crueler than this…_

"With a record like yours, I seriously doubt that," James said angrily, "Just go away!"

Avery looked mad now. "Will you two listen to sense? We only have forty minutes to get you out of here! Isn't that what you want?"

"Why the change of heart?" Arthur asked warily.

"We're not Death Eaters!" Nott said, speaking for the first time.

"Sure looks like it to me," James spat, "I'm going back to sleep."

"Mr. Potter!" Avery said very angrily, "if you fall back asleep, I will _personally _fail you in Transfiguration, whether you have an aptitude for it or not!"

James turned around slowly, and Lily's heart skipped a beat. _It can't be!_ "You can't fail me unless…" something clicked in his brain, then he whispered, "Professor McGonagall?", voicing the conclusion Lily had come to a second earlier. It was hardly believable—_we're getting out!_

"Yes, it's me, but we don't have much time! The Potion wears off after only an hour!"

"Can you get the door open?" Lily asked, finding her voice at last.

McGonagall nodded wordlessly and pulled out a ring of keys. "Do you know where your wands are?" Malfoy asked.

Arthur spoke this time, "Somewhere in the study, it's by the front door."

Malfoy swore. "Hopefully Albus got farther in than there…"

"We're supposed to pretend to take you somewhere, but instead Portkey you away," Nott eyed Lily and James, "It was to Hogsmeade, but we might want to take you to St. Mungo's; you look pretty bad."

"We have thirty-five minutes to pull this off," Malfoy reminded his fellow pseudo-Death Eaters, "We have to get going if we have to get their wands, too."

"Do any of you know which one it is?" McGonagall asked.

"Should be silver with little triangles for the teeth, with a "P" on the head," Poppy said.

The four pseudo-Death Eaters stared at her. "Poppy?" MacNair said disbelievingly.

"Yes," she said, "I prefer the job of matron over prisoner; I can't wait to get back."

The four laughed, while McGonagall found the correct key and opened each of their cells.

"Minerva," Poppy said, "usually the Death Eaters levitate us everywhere. It would look awkward for you to be leading us this one time…"

McGonagall hesitated. "I don't want to hurt you…"

"It doesn't matter," Lily said briskly, "It's happened plenty of times!" _Just get us out of here!_

McGonagall reluctantly pulled out her wand and levitated James, who was nearest. "I'm going to regret this…"

"If you do, don't let it be our fault," Arthur said, "Like Lily said, it doesn't matter."

Malfoy levitated Lily, MacNair Poppy, and Nott Arthur. They proceeded upstairs, encountering nobody. The four teachers seemed to be getting worried. "Where's the battle?" McGonagall asked quietly.

"Dunno," Malfoy said, "This is the ground floor…and there's the door…yes…and there's the study!"

He gently put Lily down, and the others did likewise. Arthur rushed into the room and took their wands off a table. "Here you go," he said as he distributed them. "Now, where's that battle you were talking about?"

"No!" McGonagall said, panicking slightly. "You can't join the battle!"

"And why not?" Lily asked fiercely. _They've made my life hell, let me get payback!_

McGonagall sighed. Apparently she had been expecting this. "The reason for the battle was to cause a diversion so we could get you all out safely!"

"I don't care!" Lily said fiercely, "They need to pay for what they did to us!"

McGonagall looked into their determined faces. "You can't…"

"Yes we bloody well can, Professor!" James yelled.

McGonagall and the others looked surprised. Taking advantage of their momentary weakness, the four former prisoners ran off for revenge.

* * *

Minerva drank the Polyjuice Potion and grimaced. This was just as bad as everyone had said…

Soon she had completely transformed into Avery. She looked the other three up and down—they all looked enough like Death Eaters.

On Albus' orders, they hurried into the Manor. It was then that they figured out, "Where are the dungeons?"

"You can't ask anyone that, they'd think you were insane, this is supposed to be your house!" Filius said reasonably.

"Oi! Goyle!" Minerva called after a retreating figure. "Can you tell me where the dungeons are? I want to see the prisoners!" Goyle looked taken aback, "Damien won't tell us, he's being a jerk," Minerva said reproachfully, shooting Horace an evil glare, "and I always get lost here. If you could just point us in the right direction…"

For a moment, she thought it wouldn't work; but then, she had always underestimated the Goyles' stupidity. He pointed down a set of stairs on the left. "Two floors down, turn right," he grunted, and then sauntered off.

Hardly believing their luck, they hurried in the direction Goyle had indicated. Unfortunately, the passage that led to the dungeons was long and winding, and Minerva was beginning to get irritated. _Where are they?_

Finally, she saw a corridor with cells lining both walls, and they walked purposely down it, looking for any prisoners. Minerva heard movement on the other end of the hall, and she hurried to reach it.

As soon as she caught sight of red hair, she knew she had found Lily. But as Lily came into full view, all five of them—Lily and the teachers—blanched. Lily, Minerva realized, because they look like Death Eaters. And the rest of them, well…

This was definitely not the Lily Evans that Minerva remembered from last December. This one was emaciated, tired, and very dirty, not to mention extremely pissed off.

"What do you want?" she spat.

"To get you out of here," Horace said after a few seconds. None of the teachers could get their eyes off of Lily. She was so…different!

"What are you talking about? You're the one that landed us here in the first place!" It took a while for these words to sink in.

"Miss Evans, do you want to get back to Hogwarts or not?"

"Of course I do, but…"

"Lily, what's going on?" Minerva heard a man's voice say. She saw three other figures moving in their cells. _Those must be the other three!_

"Four Death Eaters are down here claiming they're going to get us out!" Lily answered angrily.

"Miss Evans," Filius said patiently, "we're not going to hurt you!"

"With a record like yours, I seriously doubt that," came James' angry voice from the cell across the hall, "Just go away!"

Minerva shuddered internally at that thought; what does he mean, _With a record like yours_?

Her temper was rising, however, "Will you two listen to sense? We only have forty minutes to get you out of here! Isn't that what you want?"

"Why the change of heart?" asked the red-haired man.

"We're not Death Eaters!" Pomona tried to explain, but…

"Sure looks like it to me," James said rudely, "I'm going back to sleep!"

Minerva tried to think of something that would convince them that they weren't Death Eaters. "Mr. Potter," she said angrily, "If you fall back asleep, I will _personally _fail you in Transfiguration, whether you have an aptitude for it or not!"

Minerva knew that she had struck gold. James turned around and stared at her, and Lily's eyes widened considerably. "You can't fail me unless…" the light bulb turned on. "Professor McGonagall?" he asked, choking on his words.

Minerva was relieved and said, "Yes, it's me, but we don't have much time! The Potion wears off after only an hour!"

Lily's eyes grew even wider with Minerva's confirmation of her identity. "Can you get the doors open?"

Minerva nodded and pulled out a key ring she had taken from the wall earlier. She tuned out their conversation as she began to try out the dozens of different keys. "Do any of you know which one it is?" she asked, getting irritated.

She heard a familiar voice answer. She spun around, to see Poppy Pomfrey looking at her from the cell next to James. "Poppy?" Filius whispered.

"Yes, I prefer the job of matron over prisoner, can't wait to get back."

Finally, Minerva found the correct key and opened all of the cells. She turned around, however, as she heard Poppy say, "Minerva, usually the Death Eaters levitate us everywhere. It would look awkward for you to be just leading us this time…"

Minerva was shocked. They were _floated_ everywhere? Did they ever get to stretch their legs at all? Finally she said, "I don't want to hurt you…"

"It doesn't matter, it's happened plenty of times!" Lily said excitedly. _What has happened to them?_

Against her will, Minerva pulled out her wand. "I'm going to regret this…" she said as she levitated James.

"If you do, don't let it be our fault," said the man, "like Lily said, it doesn't matter." Horace took Lily, Filius Poppy, and Pomona the other man who seemed vaguely familiar to Minerva—she thought he might have been Arthur Weasley, who had graduated from Hogwarts eight years before.

As they proceeded up the dungeon stairs, they heard no sound from above. That worried Minerva. "Where's the battle?" she asked slowly.

"Dunno, this is the ground floor…and there's the door…yes…and there's the study!" Horace said.

The four carefully put the emancipated prisoners down, and the red-haired man rushed in to get their wands. "Here you go…" he said as he gave the wands back to their owners. "Now, where's that battle you were talking about?"

"No!" Minerva explained immediately, "You can't join the battle!"

"And why not?" Lily asked her angrily. Minerva was surprised to see hatred burning in her emerald eyes. She wondered again, _what have they done to them?_

Minerva sighed. How did she know that they would have this reaction? "The reason for the battle was to cause a diversion so we could get you out safely! You'll get yourself killed!"

"I don't care! They need to pay for what they did to us!"

Minerva felt like screaming. _What have they done to these four?_ However, she began weakly, "You can't…"

"Yes we bloody well can, Professor!" James yelled angrily at her. Minerva stared at him. However much James had irritated her, she had never heard him yell at a teacher before; talk back, maybe, but never yell…

Sensing the teachers' shock, the four former prisoners ran off, presumably to find the battle. The Heads, still shocked, stared after them.

"We're going to have to stop them," Pomona said after a few seconds.

"But how?" Horace asked, his eyes wide. "There's still fifteen minutes of the Potion left…"

* * *

Albus was starting to get worried. Where were all the Death Eaters? They had been walking through the Manor for two full minutes and had encountered nobody!

Suddenly, Albus heard voices coming from behind a closed door. Signaling the rest to stay put, he moved closer to the door to make out the words.

"Welcome, my Death Eaters, to another meeting," Dumbledore heard Voldemort say, "Why have I arranged this meeting, you ask? I've been thinking, and we haven't really done anything since our attack on Reading, and I thought we should do another place, another Muggle town, perhaps…"

Dumbledore motioned for Scrimgeour to come forward. He stepped forward and listened at the door. As he continued to press his ear against the door, Dumbledore, who had stepped aside for him, was beginning to get worried. Scrimgeour's face darkened with every second, and finally he pulled away from the door and turned to the assembled adults. "He's making up a plan involving the attack of another town," he said, "He didn't say which one, though…"

The group looked grimly back at him. "So what do we do? Attack now?" Kettleburn said after a moment.

"No, we should wait until it's finished, then attack them as they're coming out," Scrimgeour explained, and again put his ear to the door.

Ten minutes later he pulled back quickly. "It's a short meeting, they're done!"

Everyone pulled out their wands, looking terrified—none of them knew if they were going to live to see the day…

The doors began to open and the group moved back a bit. The first Death Eaters to come out of the room stopped dead in their tracks when they saw the Aurors and teachers. Then one yelled—"_Auror attack_!"

The Death Eaters came pouring out in droves; there had to be at least seventy-five of them. Feeling outnumbered, everyone began to duel. Dumbledore quickly sought out Voldemort, who was leaving down a side passage. Seeing Dumbledore following him, however, he quickly pulled something out of his pocket and disappeared.

"Coward," Dumbledore muttered, and began to help in the fight against the Death Eaters. The foes that went down had their wands taken, were stunned, and an Anti-Apparition spell put on them for good measure. As far as Dumbledore could see, there were about three Death Eaters down, with no losses on their side. Heartened by this, he quickly stunned a Death Eater who was attacking a young Auror.

"Thanks," she said quickly, and went back into the fight.

Suddenly a scream hid Dumbledore's ears. Somebody had gotten cursed…he made his way over to where it came from and saw a man pulling out his Portkey and vanishing, his leg bloody and mangled. Dumbledore dove back into the fight, stunning as many Death Eaters as he could. However, the Death Eaters seemed to be getting the upper hand.

The battle had been on for nearly half an hour, and Dumbledore was beginning to lose hope. Bryan Kettleburn had to be Portkeyed to St. Mungo's, seven other Aurors had to be Portkeyed away, and three of them had been killed by Death Eaters. About ten Death Eaters had been felled, but there seemed to be an infinite number of them to keep on fighting.

Dumbledore was fighting Nott when a Death Eater went flying past him. Stunning Nott, he turned to see what had thrown the Death Eater. His heart sank as he saw four heads—two red and two dark—coming in from the door. _They were supposed to have gotten out!_

The Death Eaters all paused a moment to stare at the four, and the Aurors and teachers used that to their advantage. There were many yells as about ten more Death Eaters were felled, and that seemed to hearten Dumbledore's group. They fought with a renewed vigor, and many other Death Eaters went down under their onslaught.

Dumbledore kept one eye on the four as they began attacking Death Eaters—they seemed to be manic in their attack. Dumbledore had never seen anyone fight so ferociously before.

The tide of the battle soon brought them to Dumbledore's side. "What are you doing here?" he asked James, who was closest.

"Getting payback."

"For what?"

"Hm…starving us, locking us up, torturing us, you know…" James answered, as if it were obvious.

"Ah…" Dumbledore said, deep in thought, "but you need to get away, you all look dreadful!"

This time it was Lily who spoke. "We're not going anywhere until this battle is finished, Professor," she said, a manic gleam in her eyes that Dumbledore had never seen before. Dumbledore looked at them, concerned, as they moved away from him, but soon he was distracted by a wolf-like Death Eater in front of him. "Hello, Fenrir," Dumbledore said calmly as they began to duel. "Attacked anyone lately?"

"Got a kid last full moon," Greyback spat proudly.

"Really?" Dumbledore said with sarcastic interest.

They dueled without conversation for a few minutes, then Dumbledore got the upper hand and stunned Greyback. "That was for Lily and James," he said, "as well as Remus Lupin."

He snapped Greyback's wand in half, and went off in search of another Death Eater.

The battle continued for another half an hour, and everyone was exhausted. The four Heads had joined their ranks, but the real advantage came from having Lily, James, Arthur, and Poppy on their side.

They, together, had defeated about as many Death Eaters as the rest of them combined. Seven more Aurors had been killed, but that was nothing compared to the fighting quartet. They had felled at least thirty Death Eaters combined, and the remaining ten or so of them tried to avoid them at all costs—all of them except Damien Malfoy.

He walked boldly up to them and said, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" Lily sent a stunner at him, but he deflected it easily. "Aren't you supposed to be down in your cells, talking about whatever you lot talk about?"

Dumbledore saw their grips on their wands tighten, but they kept their tempers in check. He wasn't sure that that was going to last very long.

"Well," James said, pretending to think, "I think it's kinda obvious what we're doing, you know, kicking Death Eater arse? And no, we shouldn't be downstairs, this is _so_ much more fun, as well as productive…"

Malfoy looked livid, "You are at my mercy, you must do as I say, you are subor…"

"Oh, cut the lies, Malfoy," Lily said, rolling her eyes, "We're not your slaves, and we aren't your prisoners either. We won't listen to a word you say!"

Malfoy looked livid. "_Crucio!_"

She neatly side-stepped the curse, and it hit the wall behind her, creating a sizeable hole in it.

If possible, Malfoy looked even angrier. He hissed a spell under his breath, but the four didn't realize what it was until it was too late. Arthur's eyes widened in horror as the orange light sped toward them, formed into a sphere, and surrounded the four. Dumbledore gasped as he recognized the spell as the Morte Lentacurse. They would be lucky to get out of this alive…


	16. XVI

**XVI.**

Malfoy laughed and ran away, and quickly the rest of the Death Eaters followed suit. Minerva and Dumbledore dashed over to the four immediately. "What did he do to them?" Minerva asked, terrified as she looked down at their still furious faces.

"The Morte Lenta curse, but Sue should be able to tell you more about it," he looked around for a moment, not seeing the Defense teacher. "Where is she?"

"Over here, Albus," Horace's voice came sorrowfully from a corner.

"What's wrong with her?" Dumbledore asked, scared for the answer.

"She's, well…dead," Horace answered, his voice cracking.

"What?" Dumbledore gasped, hurrying over quickly. Sue Silez was, indeed, as dead as a doornail. Her eyes were wide and staring, and her mouth was open, as if to cast a spell. It seemed that the Death Eater had only spat his out faster. Dumbledore was filled with fury. Those Death Eaters would certainly pay for Sue, as well as the other four… "We need to get those four to St. Mungo's, there is one cure for that curse, and they need to receive it soon in order to survive," he said, finally composing himself.

Minerva nodded, took the St. Mungo's Portkey offered to her, grabbed James' limp wrist, and disappeared. Horace, Filius, and Pomona each took the others and Portkeyed away as well.

Dumbledore said to the remaining Aurors and teachers, "Thank you for coming and saving those four. They owe their lives to you. We have been here…" he checked his watch, "nearly three hours. All you Aurors should go back to the Ministry, you don't want to be questioned too extensively." All of the Aurors nodded and left. "Now, the rest of us…" he gestured around at the remaining teachers, "have to collect everyone."

The staff nodded solemnly and began to work. Twelve people total had been killed on their side, along with three Death Eaters Dumbledore could only assume got hit with stray curses.

They left the Death Eaters, but carried the eleven Aurors along with Sue to the middle of the hall. They looked to Dumbledore, awaiting directions. "Alright, there are…" he counted the heads and concluded, "ten of you, along with me. If you'll all grab an Auror or two, I'd prefer to take Sue…" his voice cracked, "Portkey to St. Mungo's, it'll cause chaos, but there we can see our friends as well."

Everyone nodded. "Very well then, see you at St. Mungo's!" and with that, he took Sue's cold, limp hand and Portkeyed away.

The lobby of St. Mungo's was mercifully empty. The receptionist looked up as he appeared, and took in the image of Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, holding the dead body of a woman. "Professor Dumbledore?" she asked uncertainly, "What…"

"Be prepared, there's another eleven dead coming along after me, as well as ten living."

The receptionist gaped at him. "Does this have anything to do with the ten or so Aurors appearing here badly injured?"

"Yes, it has everything to do with it," Dumbledore explained patiently, "we were just in a battle, and twelve were killed, about the same number badly injured, and the rest of us scraped up a bit, but—"

Before he could finish his sentence, the rest of the teachers arrived with the dead Aurors. "Now, really!" the receptionist began, but Dumbledore cut her off.

"I told you," he said patiently, "Now, I need to contact the Ministry."

He turned on the spot and Disapparated, and soon was in the Atrium of the Ministry building. "Hello," he said, walking up to the desk, "I need to talk to the Minister, it's extremely important."

"Do you have an appointment?" the secretary asked.

"No, but this involves the lives of four people, two of whom currently attend my school."

The man looked unfazed. "If you could perhaps come back tomorrow…"

"I need to see her _now_," Dumbledore said firmly, "What is she currently doing that is more important than this?"

"Currently she is discussing something highly important with the Head Auror, who arrived fifteen…"

Dumbledore clapped his hands together happily. "Rufus is part of this important matter I have been telling you about! Now, if you could please show me the way to Millicent?"

Sighing resignedly, the man led Dumbledore down a side corridor, and then suddenly turned left down another passage. After walking for a few minutes, they came to a rather plain wooden door that read, "Millicent Bagnold, Minister of Magic". The man turned around and left, leaving Dumbledore to knock on the door.

"Can it wait?" came the old minister's voice.

"No," Dumbledore answered, "it's extremely important."

"Fine, come in, come in," Bagnold said impatiently. Dumbledore was taken aback by her coldness; usually she was a relatively kind lady. "Is there a reason that nearly a dozen of my best Aurors are dead?" she asked, revealing the source of her anger.

"Yes, there is," Dumbledore answered calmly, "they all gave up their lives doing that they felt was right—saving four prisoners down in a Death Eater's dungeon."

Bagnold gaped at him like a fish out of water. "I told you…I wouldn't help…"

"I am completely aware of that, Millicent," Dumbledore explained calmly. "I asked the Auror office for some help, and thirty of them volunteered. Good thing they did—there was more than fifty Death Eaters there; our staff couldn't have done it alone."

"So you said that there were four of these captives there?" Bagnold said, still hopelessly confused, "Who were they?"

"Lily Evans, James Potter, Poppy Pomfrey, and as far as I could tell, Arthur Weasley. They are currently in great need of the Pare Morte potion, as they have been hit with the Morte Lenta curse, and are in St. Mungo's."

Millicent's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Doesn't St. Mungo's have it?"

"They do not carry it, as you well know. Only the Ministry can supply the potion."

"Of course…" she muttered. "I will request four doses of it, when will you need it by?"

"Probably within the next fifteen minutes," Dumbledore told him, "the unfortunate effects of the curse take effect and kill the victim after an hour. It's been about half an hour since the Death Eater cast the spell."

"Fine, fine…" she muttered and wrote something down on a piece of parchment. "Go to the bottom floor and give this to the secretary, she'll get it for you."

"Thank you, Millicent," Dumbledore said, nodded at Scrimgeour, and left the office.

His trip down the elevator took him longer than he would have liked, as there were many Ministry workers awake and busy at that time of the day. He finally reached the bottom floor and headed briskly toward the secretary desk. She gave him a piercing look once he handed her the parchment before exiting through a side door. She returned five minutes later with four vials of an electric blue potion, and handed them wordlessly to Dumbledore. He nodded his thanks, and then Disapparated to St. Mungo's.

The secretary still seemed to be in shock. Dumbledore coughed to get her attention. "It's you again?" she asked rather rudely.

"Yes it is, I need to know where Lily Evans, James Potter, Poppy Pomfrey, and Arthur Weasley are staying."

"The Elwood Dinkin ward, fourth floor," the secretary muttered, still in shock.

"Thank you," Dumbledore said seriously, "you've saved four lives today."

She nodded, and Dumbledore left to the specified ward. Upon arrival, he noticed that the room felt as if it contained a deathbed. About ten Healers were clustered around four beds in a corner.

He walked over to the lead Healer and handed her the vials of antidote. She sighed with relief and swiftly started giving instructions to the other Healers. They took action immediately; some leaving the room, one going to the cabinet across the back of the ward, and four to the patients in the beds.

The Healer explained to Dumbledore, "We'll give them the potions now, but they won't come around for a few more hours. The curse is designed so that it eventually stops all of the body's organs, but if it is administered early enough, it can reverse the process. Seeing as the curse hit them about forty-five minutes ago, it should take about seven hours. It's," she checked her watch, "nine-thirty, so they'll wake up around four-thirty."

Dumbledore was surprised at the length of time it took to revive them to consciousness, but he said nothing. He simply nodded as the four Healers administered the potions to their charges. Nothing happened immediately, but Dumbledore was expecting that. The effects would not be immediate if they took seven hours to develop fully…

He sat down in a chair next to Poppy's bed. His thoughts turned to Lily's and James' friends—they would certainly be overjoyed to see them alive, but in this condition? Skin and bone, filthy, and chalk white…he supposed that he would just have to ask them before they saw them.

* * *

James heard Malfoy mutter the curse, but he didn't recognize the orange light speeding towards him and his friends. However, he knew something bad was going to happen when he heard Arthur gasp in horror, saw Dumbledore's eyes widen and saw the stream of light turn into a sphere around them.

James tried to grab Lily's arm but found that he could not move; the curse seemed to knock the air out of his whole body—it almost felt as if it was shriveling up from lack of oxygen. _Some sort of Dark Magic,_ was his last angry thought before his world was plunged into darkness.

When he awoke, he was once again in the common room. The whole of Gryffindor house seemed to be there, but instead of looking joyful as they had last time, they were all milling around like a group without a leader. He spotted Remus, Sirius, Peter—completely antler-free—sitting with Sarah, Laurie, and Petunia in a corner. They looked incredibly bored.

"Where do you reckon they all are?" Sirius asked, looking confused, "What's so important that they all have to quit teaching for a day?"

"Dumbledore has a reason for everything," Laurie said stubbornly. It sounded as if they had been through this many times before. "He's always got something up his sleeve."

"Yes, but what's the point of going on an unannounced vacation on Monday, January eighteenth?" Remus asked reasonably.

_To save us, _James thought, smiling slightly. Moony would be eating his words soon enough…

After a few more minutes of arguing, the conversation turned to Quidditch. James' stomach dropped. Had he missed any matches?

"We play Ravenclaw in March," Sirius was saying worriedly. _Good, I'll be back by then. _"Do you think James'll be back by then?"

"I think he will," Remus said, smiling. "James wouldn't miss a Quidditch match, remember that time in third year, he had the flu but still snuck out of the Hospital Wing to play?"

"Yeah, we won the Cup," Sirius said, a dreamy look on his face, "and you couldn't hold it, remember, and nobody knew but us…"

James snorted. He remembered that day very well…

"_I'm sorry, Mister Potter, but you cannot participate in the Quidditch match tomorrow," said Madame Pomfrey sternly, "and that's my final word."_

_The fourteen-year-old James opened his mouth to argue, but the matron cut him off. "No buts; I don't care if you're the best Chaser Gryffindor has seen in years, you're not playing!"_

_James sighed and slumped back onto his pillow. However, when Madame Pomfrey disappeared into her office, James immediately became alert, pulled out a small hand mirror from his pocket, and said into it, "Sirius Black." Within a few seconds a face with long black hair began to appear in his mirror—the face of his best friend._

"_What, mate?" Sirius asked, apparently alarmed by the look on James' face, "What's the matter?"_

"_Pomfrey won't let me play Quidditch tomorrow," James told him angrily, "just because I puked in Transfiguration…"_

_Sirius seemed to be thinking. After a few seconds, he said, "Tell you what, tomorrow before the match I'll bring the Invisibility Cloak up, and you can sneak out!" a wicked grin was spreading across his face, "Deal?"_

_James adopted a mischievous grin to match his friend's. "Deal!"_

_So James waited until the next morning, until Madame Pomfrey was out of sight, before to saying to Sirius through the mirror, "All clear." Sirius' face nodded and disappeared._

_A few minutes later, Sirius materialized in front of James' bed. They both grinned at their success, and slipped back to the common room to get James' Nimbus 1500, the fastest broom on the market. As soon as they were out on the grounds, James uncovered himself and sprinted off to the Gryffindor locker rooms._

"_Potter, where have you been?" asked the captain, A.J. Rithirt. He was a tall, muscular seventh year and the Gryffindor Keeper._

"_Pomfrey wouldn't let me out, I had to sneak away with Sirius," James explained as he changed into his Quidditch robes._

"_Fine, but try not to puke during the match, ok? I want to win the Cup again this year…"_

_Soon afterward, it was time for them to play. They walked out onto the field to thunderous applause; three quarters of the stands was clad in red and gold, while one quarter wore green and silver. James grinned, waved, and hoped Madame Pomfrey wasn't in the crowd watching._

_The match started, and within ten minutes the score was 40-0 to Gryffindor; James had scored thirty of the points. He was streaking after a Slytherin Chaser when he saw Katy, their fifth-year Seeker dive. James' insides flip-flopped—if she caught the Snitch, they would win the Cup!_

_The whole stadium stopped to watch as the red and green blurs tore across the field, in hot pursuit of the tiny golden ball. The Slytherin was getting pretty rough; he kept knocking into Katy on purpose, but she was now reaching out her hand for the Snitch…_

"_YES!" she roared as she flew upwards, her hand in a tight fist around the Snitch, and the stadium exploded with applause. James and the rest of the Gryffindor team sped toward Katy, beaming, A.J. crying with joy. _

_The team was borne on the shoulders of Gryffindor supporters to Professor Dumbledore, who was holding the silver Cup. He passed it to A.J., who passed it to Katy. She held it up in the air, and, if possible, the applause got even louder._

_The seven teammates were carried up to the common room, and eventually set down in the seven best seats by the fire. The Marauders soon had a huge party going, and the Quidditch Cup was passed around to all of the Gryffindors—they had WON!_

_James was getting more Butterbeer when he heard a voice, mostly calm but with the slightest hint of panic in it say, "No, I don't need to…seriously, Anthony…"_

_James walked over to his friend's side, who was looking wide-eyed at the Quidditch Cup that Anthony Lewis was holding out to him. _What is wrong with you? _James thought, frowning at Remus. He looked over at James, apparently looking for support in his friend. When none came, Remus began to answer Anthony._

"_C'mon, it's got some sort of power coming from it! It's awesome, Remus, just for a minute?"_

"_No, Anthony, I don't need to, seriously…" then it clicked in James' brain. Remus-werewolf. Cup-silver. Silver-poisonous for werewolves. Conclusion-Remus shouldn't hold Cup._

"_Anthony, if he doesn't want to hold it, you shouldn't force him to," James informed the second year. Anthony, surprised, walked off to his friends. However, he kept stealing glances at Remus, as if trying to figure something out._

"_Do you think he'll find out?" Remus asked James in an undertone._

"_Nah, it took us two years of being your best friends, there's no way…" Remus nodded, not looking entirely reassured. "Trust me, Remus."_

"_Oh, all right." he said quietly._

Those were the good old days…their biggest problems were winning the next Quidditch game and passing the next Transfiguration test. But now, three of them were worried for their friend's life, and one of them…

James had to think for a moment. _Where am I in the real world?_ The last thing he remembered was orange light, Aurors, and all of the teachers…

His brain clicked. They had come to rescue him from Malfoy Manor, but Malfoy had cursed him and his friends. Then he had one of those funny dreams he seemed to have whenever he passed out…

The common room seemed to shimmer in and out of focus, and within seconds James was once again plunged into blackness.


	17. XVII

**XVII.**

Dumbledore checked the clock on the wall—three-thirty. He sighed—the only difference in the patients' appearances was their bodies seemed to tense up, and then relax, over and over again. The Healers said that it was completely normal, but Dumbledore found it odd.

Each teacher at one point had joined him in his five-hour vigil, and Minerva had brought with her some startling and disturbing news. She had recounted the conversation they had had with the four, and the comments that they had made worried him. What did James mean when he said, "They need to pay for what they did to us"? _What had Voldemort done to them?_

A more fierce hate than ever before blossomed in Dumbledore—a hate of all things evil. He sat contemplating this for a while, until a Healer said to him, "Albus, it's four o'clock, they should be waking up in about half an hour. Do you want to get their friends and family here? You can get the Weasleys and then Floo Hogwarts…"

Dumbledore nodded and walked over to the fireplace. He threw a handful of Floo Powder into the fire, put his head in, and said, "The Burrow!"

His head began to spin very fast, and soon he was looking into the kitchen of the Weasley home. Currently, the only person occupying the room was four-year-old Charlie. He jumped and gave a yell of fright when he saw Dumbledore.

"Hello, Charlie," Dumbledore said calmly, "I am Albus Dumbledore." The boy still looked terrified, "Can you bring your mother here, please?"

He nodded and scurried out of the room. A minute later, a very tired Molly Weasley walked into the kitchen, carrying baby Percy.

"Dumbledore!" she exclaimed when she saw his head in the flames. "Charlie didn't say it was you, he just said that there was a man's head in the fire and that he wanted to talk to me!"

Charlie looked out from behind Molly's apron. Dumbledore smiled at him, and he hid behind her again, blushing furiously.

"Is Bill here?" Dumbledore asked, adopting a serious expression.

"Yes, he's upstairs…"

"Excellent, I need you all to come to St. Mungo's please, as quickly as you can." Molly looked shocked. "I will explain once you arrive."

She nodded, and Dumbledore pulled his head out of the fire. The St. Mungo's ward came back into view. "All right," he said to the Healer nearest to him, "My staff should be standing outside the door. I would like them to be allowed inside." The Healer nodded. "Now, I need to contact the Gryffindors…" he threw another handful of powder into the fire, "The Gryffindor common room!"

His head, once again, began spinning very fast, and then the common room came into focus. Nobody was looking at the fireplace, so he said loudly, "Sirius, Remus, Peter, Sarah, Laurie, and Petunia, I need to talk to you. It's urgent."

The whole of Gryffindor house looked around wildly for the source of his voice, then a miniscule second year named Vicky Zwic yelled, "Professor Dumbledore's head! In the fire!" Everyone's heads whipped around, and Sirius got down on the hearthrug so that he was at eye level with Dumbledore.

"Professor, what is it? Where have you all been? Why…"

"Sh," Dumbledore said, successfully causing him to fall silent. "I need all of you but you six to go up to your dormitories," he informed the rest of the house, "I will explain everything to you later, I promise."

The Gryffindors walked upstairs, not daring to argue with the Headmaster.

Once the last door had slammed, the six crouched down in front of Dumbledore. Before they could ask any questions, he said, "You all need to Floo to St. Mungo's immediately. Petunia, we will teach you."

They exploded with questions.

"Who's at St. Mungo's?"

"Why's it so private?"

"Is it Ja—"

"_Silence_!" Dumbledore said loudly. "I will come all the way through with the Floo Powder in a moment, and once we Floo to St. Mungo's, I will explain everything."

The six nodded reluctantly. Dumbledore pulled his head out of the fire, grabbed the jar of Floo Powder, and once again Flooed to the common room. Brushing himself off a bit, he passed the powder to Sirius. "Once you get to the lobby, just wait for the rest of us."

Sirius nodded, threw the powder into the fire, stepped in, and yelled, "St. Mungo's!" He disappeared in a flash of flames, and Petunia shrieked.

"Don't worry, Miss Evans, Flooing is completely painless," he handed her some powder, "Just copy what Mr. Black did."

She nodded faintly and did as she was told. She, soon, was also gone in a flash of fire.

Dumbledore was the last to step into the emerald flames; once he arrived, he put the lid on the jar and put it into his pocket. He found that the teenagers were staring at him impatiently.

"All right," he said resignedly, as they showed no signs of moving. "Today, we teachers were gone on a rescue mission—"

"Blimey, Peter was right!" Sirius said, looking in amazement at his small friend.

"—to rescue the four people who sent the letter last week," Dumbledore finished.

"Four?" Sarah asked, "McGonagall said that there were only two…"

"No, there were four," Dumbledore explained, "Miss Evans, Mister Potter, Poppy Pomfrey, and Arthur Weasley."

"So does that mean you're firing Madame Tramel?" Peter asked hopefully, "Now that Madame Pomfrey is coming back?"

"Professor," Remus asked slowly, "If you saved them, why are they in St. Mungo's?"

Dumbledore hesitated, but he knew he would have to answer this question eventually, "Well…" he began, "…a Death Eater hit them with a Dark curse that nearly killed them."

Sarah's eyes were as wide as saucers. "Are they…are they…"

"They are due to awaken at about three-thirty, in twenty minutes," Dumbledore explained gently, "I'm going to bring you up to their ward once the Weasleys arrive…"

The door opened, and Molly Weasley walked in, Bill, Charlie, and Percy in tow. "Albus," Molly said breathlessly, "What do you need me…"

"I will explain it to you on the way upstairs," Albus told her, "we need to be there in five minutes."

Molly nodded, and the eleven began to walk up to the fourth floor. She was overjoyed to find out that Arthur was alive, but became very white when she was informed hat he was in a coma caused by the Morte Lenta curse.

"But he'll be all right, won't he? Because they've given him the antidote and everything…"

"He will wake up, yes, but who knows what happened to him since he was abducted? It was in October, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Molly answered sadly. "Is this it?" she pointed at a door marked, "Elwood Dinkin Ward."

"Yes it is," Dumbledore told them. "However, I have something to tell you all first. They are not in the best physical state…"

"That doesn't matter, they're our friends!" Sirius said angrily.

"Don't say I didn't warn you…" Dumbledore told them quietly. "Go inside and tell them who you are, they should let you see them immediately."

Molly pushed the door opened and walked in, carrying Percy, with Bill and Charlie walking behind her. The six friends walked closely behind her. They walked up to the cluster of people surrounding the four beds. Molly boldly walked up to a Healer and said, "My name is Molly Weasley; I believe my husband is here. I would like to see him." The Healer nodded, and Molly pushed trough the crowd to the front.

The six friends made to do the same, but the Healer stopped them. "Names?" she asked, eyes narrowed.

"Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sarah Kellison, Laurie Victonia, and Petunia Evans," Sirius listed impatiently. "Can we see our friends now?"

The Healer didn't say anything for a moment; simply scrutinized them from behind small spectacles.

"Come, come, Zales, let them through!" McGonagall said angrily, appearing beside them and glaring accusingly at the Healer. "They've been friends seven years and they've been missing for a month; do you not think they would be worried about them?"

The Healer hesitated, then said, "Fine, you can see…" but at the word "fine," the six had pushed through the crowd, and within seconds were at the front of it. Dumbledore walked slowly behind them.

Their facial expressions would have been comical if the situation had not been so serious; all of their mouths were hanging open, and Sarah and Sirius had to be supported by the end of the beds to keep from falling over.

"Lily!" Sarah and Laurie cried, at the same time the Marauders yelled, "James!" Petunia said nothing.

* * *

The voice cut through the common room loudly, especially as the Gryffindors were relatively quiet. It seemed to come from nowhere, and everyone looked around wildly for a moment before Vicky Zwic, a tiny second year with very strange green hair, yelled, "Professor Dumbledore's head! In the fire!"

Sirius turned his head quickly towards the fire, along with the rest of the House. He got on the floor in front of Dumbledore in the fire and said, "Professor, what is it? Where have you all been? Why…" Sirius' head was spinning with questions, and he wanted answers!

"Sh," Dumbledore chided him, and Sirius reluctantly fell silent. The Headmaster had a _lot _of explaining to do…

"I need all of you but you six to go up to your dormitories," Dumbledore said, looking at the rest of the house, "I will explain everything to you later, I promise."

The rest of the House walked up the stairs, grumbling quietly. When all of them were gone, Dumbledore continued, "You all need to Floo to St. Mungo's immediately. Petunia, we will teach you."

Even more questions were added to Sirius' mental list. He attempted to vocalize some of them, but he was not the only one.

"Who's at St. Mungo's?"

"Why is it so private?"

"Is it Ja—"

"_Silence!" _he yelled over their questions. They reluctantly quieted, and he said, "I will come all the way through with Floo Powder in a moment; once we Floo to St. Mungo's, I will explain everything in full."

The friends nodded, and Dumbledore's head disappeared. "What do you reckon it is?" Sirius asked the others. They all shrugged. Seconds later, Dumbledore appeared in the fire and stepped out onto the hearthrug. He passed the Floo Powder to Sirius and said, "Once you get to the lobby, just wait for the rest of us."

Sirius nodded, grabbed a handful of Floo Powder, threw it into the fire, stepped in himself, and yelled, "St. Mungo's!" The last thing he heard was Petunia screaming, and then he began spinning very fast. Soon enough, he was picking himself up off of the floor in the lobby and waiting for the rest to come.

Petunia came through, and Sirius helped her up when she fell. He was thanked with a glare.

Soon everyone was standing in the lobby. Dumbledore made to move up the stairs, but Sirius wouldn't budge. He said that he'd give them an explanation-he wanted it now!

"All right," Dumbledore said, after finding that they weren't going to move, "Today, we teachers were gone on a rescue mission-"

Sirius felt his eyes widen. "Blimey, Peter was right!" he said, staring at his friend.

"-to rescue the four people who sent the letter last week," Dumbledore said.

Sarah looked confused. "Four?" she asked, "McGonagall sad that there were only two…"

Dumbledore smiled, "No, there were four—Miss Evans, Mister Potter, Poppy Pomfrey, and Arthur Weasley."

Peter looked hopeful. "So does that mean that you're firing Madame Tramel? Now that Madame Pomfrey is coming back?"

Remus spoke for the first time. "Professor, if you saved them, why are they in St. Mungo's?"

Sirius felt his stomach drop. Why _were_ they in the hospital?

He saw Dumbledore hesitate. Finally he said, "Well…a Death Eater hit them with a Dark curse that nearly killed them…" Sirius felt his stomach drop lower. Were they going to be all right?

Sarah seemed to be thinking along the same lines. "Are they…are they…" she stuttered.

Dumbledore's next words calmed Sirius slightly. "They are due to awaken at about three-thirty, in twenty minutes. I'm going to bring you up to their ward once the Weasleys arrive…"

As if on cue, the lobby door opened, and a red-haired woman walked in with three children. "Albus, what do you need me…" she seemed surprised at the sight of the six teenagers.

"I will explain it to you on the way upstairs, we need to be there in five minutes." Dumbledore told Mrs. Weasley. She nodded, and they began to walk up the stairs. Dumbledore told her everything he told the others, and while she was ecstatic on finding that her husband was alive, she was quite alarmed to discover that he was struck with the Morte Lentacurse. Dumbledore had to reassure her multiple times that they had been given the antidote and that they would be all right.

"Is this it?" she asked finally, pointing at a door labeled "Elwood Dinkin Ward."

"Yes, it is," Dumbledore said, "However, I have something to tell you all first. They are not in the best physical state…" Sirius stopped and stared at him. _Why did that matter?_

"That doesn't matter, they're our friends!" he said impatiently. _Can I see James already?_

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Dumbledore said. "Go inside and tell them who you are, they should let you see them immediately." Sirius wasn't really listening as Mrs. Weasley pushed the door open, and they walked inside.

The first thing that Sirius noticed was that the room was eerily silent. Mrs. Weasley walked up to a Healer with a clipboard and said in a commanding voice, "My name is Molly Weasley, and I believe my husband is here. I would like to see him." To Sirius it sounded more like an order than a request; however, the Healer nodded and let her pass.

Sirius moved to do the same, but the Healer stopped him. Peeved, Sirius turned toward her. "Names?" she asked suspiciously.

Sirius was angry. _I want to see James_! "Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sarah Kellison, Laurie Victonia, and Petunia Evans. Can we see our friends now?" the Healer said nothing.

He was getting angry. How come Mrs. Weasley got in, but they didn't? Professor McGonagall, however, came up next to them and said, "Come, come, Zales, let them through! They've been friends seven years and they've been missing for a month, do you not think they would be worried about them?"

Sirius was never quite as grateful to McGonagall as he was at that moment, for then the Healer said, "Fine…"

Sirius and the others didn't listen to the rest of her sentence. They pushed through the crowd and were soon at the front. However, once they were there, they stopped dead in their tracks. Sirius felt his mouth drop open. Whatever he had interpreted "They're not in the best physical condition…" to mean, it certainly wasn't this.

The large group was surrounding four beds, but Sirius only saw his best friend. Sirius had no idea that his hair could get any messier than it had been last term, but apparently it could—it looked as if it had been electrocuted multiple times. His best friend was rail-thin—his cheeks were drawn and it looked as if he hadn't eaten properly in a long time. He had a long red scar down his neck, but Sirius could hardly see it for all of the dirt and grime covering his body, not to mention the blood.

One question was running through his mind—_What happened to Prongs?_ "James!" he said in a strangled voice, unaware of all the stares he was receiving, unaware that he was gripping the bed so hard that his knuckles were turning white; he was even unaware of the fact that Remus and Peter had said, "James!" at the same time that he had. Whoever did this to James was going to pay…

* * *

Sarah followed the boys through the crowd, towards the beds that held the patients, one of which was her best friend. Only one thought was running through her head—_Lily was alive! She was going to be all right!_

Sirius and Remus stopped so abruptly that she ran into them. She quickly walked over to the bed with red hair, and looked down at the face of her best friend.

Sarah felt her eyes widen and her mouth drop open. _What happened to her? _Her hair—the beautiful red hair she was so proud of—was a ratty mess. She was deathly pale and starved-looking; Sarah was betting that she didn't get much to eat while she was gone…her whole body was covered in blood, dirt, and other unidentifiable things, her robes were in tatters, and there was a scar down her cheek that looked like it had been painful.

The impact of Lily's injuries hit Sarah full-force, and she had to clutch the end of her bed for support. "Lily!" she said, starting to sob. Who had done this to her?

* * *

Dumbledore observed the reactions of his students, and was not surprised—he wasn't sure that they were listening when he explained about their condition.

He glanced up at the clock—four-twenty. _Ten minutes until those four join the world of the living, _he thought. He wasn't sure that Lily and James' friends were going to make it that short amount of time…

Ten minutes passed, and one of the figures stirred. "Daddy!" he heard Charlie squeal happily, then Arthur Weasley's slightly hoarse voice—

"Where am I?"

"You're at St. Mungo's, dear," Molly told him.

They continued a conversation, but Dumbledore was watching Sirius. He was looking over at the Weasleys with—was it jealousy?—on his face. Dumbledore put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at him.

"James will wake up, don't worry," he reassured Sirius. He nodded, and went back to staring at his friend, looking for signs of life.


	18. XVIII

**XVIII.**

Sirius looked down at his friend again, after looking up at the clock. It was four-thirty—_James is supposed to be awake!_

Movement to his left caught his eye. He turned, and found that the red-haired man was awake. A flash of anger surged through him.

"Daddy!" yelled one of his sons.

"Where am I?" he asked, confused.

"At St. Mungo's, dear," his wife informed him. Sirius was angry. Why couldn't that have been James, waking up? Didn't Dumbledore say that they were supposed to wake up at four-thirty?

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up into the calm face of Albus Dumbledore. "James will wake up, don't worry," he told Sirius. Not quite convinced, Sirius nodded and went back to watching James' still form.

Five minutes passed, and nothing happened. What was wrong with him? Why wasn't he waking up? He grasped James' hand tightly, ignoring the dirt and dried blood. He didn't know what he meant by it, maybe to assure James, when he awakened, that he was among friends.

Another five minutes—Madame Pomfrey woke up. She, too, had no idea where she was. She was immersed in conversation with Dumbledore and the rest of the staff, when Sirius felt James' fingers twitch beneath his hand.

He gasped when James' eyes fluttered open. "Prongs?"

"Padfoot," James said croakily, the ends of his mouth twitching into a smile. It looked as if he had gotten out of the practice of doing it. "glasses…"

"Of course, here…" Sirius took them off of his bedside table and put them on James' face, "better?"

"Yeah," he said, looking around, "where are we? Why are there so many people? What happened? _Where's Lily?_" he whipped his head around wildly, suddenly wide awake and panicking.

"St. Mungo's, to welcome you back, we have no idea, and in the bed next to you." Sirius told him, completely baffled by James' outburst.

"Is she all right?" he asked them, still wide-eyed.

"Yeah, Prongs, she's fine," Sirius answered him, trying to calm down his slightly hysterical friend. He put his hands on his shoulders—"Mate, you're safe. You're back from—wherever you were—and we're here with you."

He calmed down slightly after a few seconds, and asked, "And Arthur? And Madame Pomfrey?"

"If Arthur's the red-head, he's already awake," Remus informed him, "Madame Pomfrey's awake as well, and Lily is supposed to wake up soon."

James calmed down enough to sit back down against his pillows. "I'm safe…" he muttered. Sirius was completely baffled—he said it like it was some sort of foreign concept.

"Of course you are, mate," Peter said carefully, "As far as we know, Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers saved you, and you got hit by some Dark curse, and landed here."

James thought a moment before nodding slowly. "I remember something like that…"

"You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to yet," Remus said gently.

"I don't think I will, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," Sirius said quickly, glad that he had calmed down and was talking normally. _But what's happened to him?_

James looked around another second before asking meekly, "Do you think I could have a glass of water?"

"Of course," Sirius said, baffled that James would ask for water, and in that pleading of a voice. It sounded like he was actually expecting a negative answer…

"Thanks."

After asking a Healer for a glass of water, Sirius, Remus, and Peter watched amazedly as James downed the entire glass in one gulp, smiling happily. "Best thing I've tasted in a long time!"

And before his friends could say anything else, he was already back asleep.

* * *

The first thing James was aware of when he regained consciousness was that he was on an extremely comfortable bed. The second thing he realized was that someone was gripping his hand very tightly. _Who is that?_ he wondered. He twitched his fingers in an attempt to loosen the grip. When that didn't work, he opened his eyes to see who was slowly cutting off his circulation. He heard a gasp, then, "Prongs?" came Sirius' voice from his right.

"Padfoot…glasses…" he said blearily.

"Of course, here…" Sirius said, still not letting go of his hand. James felt his glasses being pushed onto his face, "better?"

"Yeah," James said, looking around. Then, he panicked—"Where are we?" he demanded of his friends, who looked very surprised, "Why are there so many people? What happened?" then another horrendous thought struck him—"_Where's Lily_?" Was she safe, or had Voldemort snatched her away again?

"St. Mungo's, to welcome you back, we have no idea, and in the bed next to you." Sirius answered, looking at him apprehensively.

"Is she all right?" he queried immediately.

"Yeah, Prongs, she's fine," Sirius answered him, putting his hands on his shoulders. James winced slightly, almost expecting a slap. "Mate, you're safe. You're back from—wherever you were—and we're here with you."

"And Arthur? And Madame Pomfrey?" James asked, still slightly alarmed. _Did we all get out of this alive?_

"If Arthur's the red-head, he's already awake," Remus informed him, "Madame Pomfrey's awake as well, and Lily is supposed to wake up soon." His friend's words soothed James enough for him to sit back down and try to clear his mind. _We're alive…we're all going to be all right…_"I'm safe…" he muttered, more to himself than to his friends. He hardly remembered the last time he had felt totally secure!

"Of course you are, mate," Peter said, "As far as we know, Dumbledore and the rest of the teachers saved you, and you got hit by some Dark curse, and landed here."

James turned over the events he last remembered witnessing. _That sounds right…_ "I remember something like that…"

"You don't have to tell us anything if you don't want to yet," Remus assured him. James sighed inwardly with relief.

"I don't think I will, if you don't mind." _There's no way in Hell I'm reliving that any time soon…_

"Not at all."

James almost opened his mouth to speak again, but then realized how scratchy his throat was. He wasn't quite sure of what anyone's reaction would be if he asked, but he would damn well try—"Do you think I could have a glass of water?"

"Of course," Sirius answered immediately, stealing a worried glance at his friend before yelling across the room for a glass of water.

James was overjoyed. "Thanks."

Sirius gave the glass to James, and he was elated to see that it was clear water, with ice cubes in it. _It's cold!_

He downed the water in seconds, which seemed to be a surprise to his friends. _True, I usually don't drink water, but… "_Best thing I've tasted in a long time!" he said truthfully. He realized that his three friends were giving him extremely odd looks, but he didn't have time to answer before sleep overtook him once again.

* * *

Sarah was still looking worriedly at Lily. The other three had woken up, why hadn't she?

Suddenly, Lily's eyes opened, and Sarah shrieked. "_Lily!_"

Lily looked around, and her face split into a grin when she saw Sarah and Laurie. "Hey, guys!" she said happily, then very abruptly said, "Where are we? Where is Arthur? And Poppy? And James?" she asked, wide-eyed. Sarah was bewildered.

"They're all here; they've woken up already. You're all safe, don't worry."

Lily visibly relaxed. _What made her panic like that? _Sarah wondered, _What happened to make her fear for her friends' lives?_

"Where are we?"

"We're in St. Mungo's…Dumbledore and all our teachers went off to save you today. According to him, one of the Death Eaters cursed you, so you ended up here."

Lily nodded slowly. "That makes sense…" Sarah was still immensely confused. _What the bloody hell has Voldemort done to my best friend?_

Before she could ask her anything, an enormous growling came from the area of Lily's stomach. She grimaced. "Do you think I could have anything to eat?" she nearly pleaded with them. Sarah and Laurie were both extremely taken aback, and sent each other a glance.

_Lily Evans _never _begs…_

"Sure," Laurie said slowly, and walked away to get some food.

"Sarah…" Lily said, her eyes huge, "…is everyone ok? Was anyone killed?"

"I don't think so, Dumbledore didn't say," she said. _Of course, there had to be a battle. How else would they have been cursed?_

She sighed in relief, and as Laurie came back with an orange, looking rather apprehensive, she threw her arms around both of them. "It's so good to be home!"

Her friends hugged her back. "It's good to have you back, hun," Laurie said happily. "All they had was a bowl of oranges, do you want me to go upstairs to get you something from…"

Before she could finish her sentence, Lily had snatched the orange held limply in Laurie's hand, peeled off part of the skin and popped a slice in her mouth. Sarah was speechless—_Lily hates oranges! _

"It's food; I really don't care what it is right now."

Sarah felt her eyes widen, and Laurie involuntarily kicked her out of shock. _What the…_"Lily, what the bloody—" Sarah asked her friend confusedly. Before they could ask her any questions, however, she had placed the remaining half of the orange on the table beside her bed and dozed off.

* * *

Lily woke up slowly, her mind muddled. _Where am I? _

She opened her eyes to try to get a bearing on her surroundings, and heard a scream to her right. Turning her head in that general direction, her mind still rather muddled, she heard her best friend's voice—"_Lily!_"

Lily smiled when she saw her best friends looking at her with a mixture of apprehension and joy on their faces. "Hey, guys!" But then, her instinct she had developed over the past month kicked in and she said very quickly, "Where are we? Where is Arthur? And Poppy? And James?" she needed to know where she was! _I need to defend myself!_

Her friends looked completely bemused. "They're all here; they've woken up already. You're all safe, don't worry." Sarah told her.

_Good. _"Where are we?"

"We're in St. Mungo's…Dumbledore and all our teachers went off to save you today. According to him, one of the Death Eaters cursed you, so you ended up here."

Memories flashed through Lily's mind—arguing with her teachers disguised as Death Eaters, blasting Death Eaters around the room, an orange curse flying straight at them and Dumbledore's horrified face…"That makes sense…"

Before her friends could reply, her empty stomach announced itself by grumbling so loudly that Lily was sure that it could be heard across the room. Lily grimaced. She didn't know if this was a dream again, but why would they see her if it was? Not sure of what would happen, she pleaded, "Do you think I could have anything to eat?" She saw her friends share a glance.

"Sure." Laurie said, getting up to get her some food.

Another horrible thought occurred to Lily at that point—"Sarah…is everyone ok? Was anyone killed?" _I don't want to be the reason someone is dead!_

"I don't think so, Dumbledore didn't say either way." _Good._

At that point Laurie came back with an orange. Under normal circumstances, Lily would not have eaten an orange; however, nothing came between food and her stomach at that point. _Just give it to me!_

Before either of them could say anything, Lily was overcome by emotion, and threw her arms around both of her best friends. "It's so good to be home!"

"It's good to have you back, hun," Laurie replied, then looked apprehensive, " All they had was a bowl of oranges, do you want me to go upstairs to get you something from…"

Lily didn't give her the chance to finish her sentence—grabbing the orange from her friend's hand, she hungrily tore off the skin and ate one of the slices faster than they could blink. The fruit, no matter how much she hated it normally, tasted like heaven to her. "It's food; I really don't care what it is right now." Realizing what she had just said, and seeing the extremely confused looks on her friends' faces—_Damn._

"Lily, what the bloody—" she was going to explain, if but a little bit, but the extreme comfort of the hospital bed overwhelmed her, and, placing the orange on the bedside table, she fell asleep.

* * *

Dumbledore walked over to his students—Lily and James were both asleep again, and their friends looked very confused.

"Could you five please come with me?" he asked them. They nodded and followed him to the back of the ward. "Did they tell you anything?"

"No," Remus said, looking rather dazed, "James seemed kinda off…"

"I would not blame them," Dumbledore said mournfully, "I do not know exactly what they went through, but I'm sure that you can interpret that it was something that nobody should be put through."

"Do you know who did it, sir?" Sarah asked him, her eyes blazing.

"I know where they were and whose fault it was, but not much else," he explained, "Poppy was rather reluctant as well."

"Can you tell us what you know?" Sirius asked.

"It is not my right to tell you, it is Mr. Potter's and Miss Evan's," Dumbledore told them.

They nodded, still looking angry, and he said, "You are free to go back to Hogwarts, or stay here with your friends…"

"Are you kidding?" Sarah asked incredulously, "I'm not going back until Lily does!"

The others nodded their agreement, and Dumbledore sighed. "That may be a while, they will need to recuperate…"

"I don't care, we need to be there for them!" Sirius argued. Dumbledore chuckled.

"Very well, I will inform your teachers."

They walked back to their friends, and Dumbledore went to tell the teachers of their decision. Afterwards, he was left to mull over what he had learned from Poppy.

Poppy had, in fact, given him more details than he was letting on. She had told him of their diet there, and he was infuriated. No wonder they asked for food and water! He assumed, however, that the five knew that their friends had been underfed.

She had also told him about Voldemort's "torture sessions." That would have been where the blood and scars came from…how they were still sane he would never know.


	19. XIX

**XIX.**

Frank was just as surprised as anyone when Dumbledore's head appeared in the fire and asked to speak to the six alone. He was left alone in the seventh years' dormitory, so he decided to go chat with the sixth years.

Anthony and his friends were just as confused as he was. "It must have something to do with Lily and James," Anthony said logically after some debating, "because he wanted to talk with their friends."

Frank glanced up at the clock after more talking—it was quarter to three. "Do you reckon we can go down now?"

"You check, you're Head Boy," Anthony prompted him. Frank nodded and cautiously walked down the stairs.

What he saw surprised him greatly—there was nobody there! He walked back up to the boy's dormitory and said that they could go down, and then went down and told the younger boys.

The girls were a different matter. They finally resorted to yelling up the staircase that it was all right to come down. Finally, the whole Gryffindor house was in the common room.

"Where do you reckon they are?" Vicky Zwic asked the room at large.

Frank stared at her slightly alarming hair before answering. "I don't know," he said, walking over to the fireplace and staring at it. Some green powder on the hearthrug caught his eye. "Hang on…" he muttered, "Anthony, come over here…"

The sixth year ran over, and Frank showed him the powder. He inspected it for a moment before muttering, "Floo Powder."

"They must have Flooed somewhere," Frank said in an undertone, "But where would they go?"

* * *

The next day, the Hogwarts students went down to breakfast to find all of the teachers back at the staff table, save two. All of the teachers looked a combination of relieved and exhausted. Frank was very confused as he sat down with Anthony, and began to dig into his bacon.

Once most of the school had settled down to breakfast, Dumbledore stood up, and the Hall quickly went silent in anticipation. Frank found that he was both excited and scared. "As you may be able to tell," Dumbledore said, "we are missing two teachers today. Bryan Kettleburn is currently in St. Mungo's; he will be all right. Unfortunately, Sue Silez is dead." Loud, angry outbursts followed this announcement. Dumbledore had to shoot many bright pink firecrackers out of his wand before he was able to continue. "Sue died saving four innocent people, and so did nearly a dozen Aurors…"

"Hang on," a fourth year Ravenclaw called out, "Where were you all yesterday? Who were you saving?"

"We were at Lord Voldemort's hideout, saving the four people who sent the letter asking for help."

"So where are Lily and James?" Anthony yelled boldly.

"Currently they are in St. Mungo's, but…" once again he had to stop as the Hall exploded. "Silence!" he roared. The students reluctantly fell silent, and he said, "Yes, they are at St. Mungo's, but they will be all right. They just need to recover from their month…away."

The hall was deadly silent. "They will be back for part of this term; they will be back when they are ready. I must ask you not to question them; they will tell you when they are ready to share. They have been through more than any of you have gone through—and probably ever will go through—in your entire life. Please, I must beg of you not to pester them.

"Classes will resume today, and Defense will be taken over by last year's teacher…" a collective groan went through the hall. Professor Schulte was mean at best, but most of the time downright cruel, "…and I'm sure you will all make him feel welcome once again."

"Professor?" Frank called out, "Where are Lily and James' friends?"

"Oh, yes," Dumbledore said, smiling, "Mr. Potter and Miss Evans' friends will be staying with them during their time at St. Mungo's. They will return when their friends do."

Unfortunately for Frank, his first class that Tuesday was Defense Against the Dark Arts. It was extremely boring at Hogwarts without the Marauders there, and Professor Schulte made it no better. He hated James and his friends the most, but his hatred of all Gryffindors was unrivaled by even Severus Snape. Because the Marauders weren't there, Schulte had only Frank, Lea, and Kelsi to vent his anger onto. He took twenty points from Gryffindor when Lea dropped her quill, and gave Frank detention when he said something to Kristin, sitting beside him.

"Can you believe it? That idiot is making me help Professor Sprout trim the Whomping Willow's dead branches on Saturday! How are we supposed to get within twenty feet of it without getting killed?" he ranted to Anthony that night in the common room.

"Dunno, mate, but you might want to write out your will first," Anthony joked.

"Thanks for the support, Anthony."

* * *

"How are you feeling?"

"All right," James answered. It was nearly a week after he had been rescued, and he had somewhat returned to his humorous, chipper self. Not entirely, however…Remus was not convinced, and apparently neither was Sirius.

"C'mon, mate, no you're not!" he argued.

James sighed. "I've felt better and I've felt worse, but it's not like I could jump out of bed now and do the Chicken Dance…"

"Since when have you been able to do the Chicken Dance?" Peter asked, looking at him strangely.

James and Sirius both rolled their eyes. "You're a Marauder and you don't know how to do the Chicken Dance?" Sirius asked incredulously.

"Yes, I mean no, I mean…"

"Shut up, Wormtail, I was kidding," Sirius said, rolling his eyes again.

"Oh," he said, blushing.

"So," Remus said, changing the subject, "James, do you want anything to eat?" He had realized the night that they had arrived, when Dumbledore had brought them dinner, that his fears that Voldemort had starved his friends were confirmed. Lily alone ate more than Sirius—which was a feat in and of itself—and James ate more than Sirius and Peter combined—which had to be some sort of record. Remus had not wanted to question James about it, but he dropped subtle hints, one of them being constantly offering him food.

"No, I had enough at breakfast, thanks," James said. He looked a bit happier than he had the week before, which was good. The Healers had cleaned off the grime and blood the day after, and he looked marginally better because of it. An expert Healer had mostly erased the red scar down his neck, but if Remus looked closely, he could still see it faintly. They had also healed Lily's cheek, and her's was even harder to see. Those, along with their unnatural pale skin and thinness, were the only visual reminders of what they had looked like only the week before.

James still had not told them anything about the past month, which worried Remus. If he wouldn't even tell his best friends about it, it must have been pretty bad…

"Remus?" James asked. He abruptly snapped out of his reverie and looked down at his friend. "Whatcha thinking about?"

"Just…everything, I guess," Remus said truthfully, "you, and Lily…"

James nodded. "I'll tell you eventually, but I'm just not ready yet. But it'll be before we go back to school, and I plan for that to be some time early next week, so…"

"Next week?" Sirius said sharply, "Dumbledore and the Healers said that you'd have to stay longer than that!"

"I'm going back either this week or next, I don't care what they say!"

Sirius, seeing that he was fighting a losing battle, merely shrugged.

"Are you sure you don't mind missing all of this school?" James asked them, "I've already missed more than three weeks, but you guys don't want to fall too far behind…"

"Mate, stop worrying," Sirius said, "Since when have I cared about school?"

"Never," James said, smiling, "but we have our N.E.W.T.'s this year…"

"So what? You need us more than those blasted teachers do, we'll be giving them a break! Just think of it that way."

James laughed, which Remus took as a good sign—"All right."

* * *

Frank was about to leave Transfiguration the next day when McGonagall held him back. "You will not be serving your detention with Professor Sprout on Saturday. You will instead be writing lines in my office."

"Ok," Frank said, brightening up.

"Look," McGonagall said quietly, "I know Johnis biased, but you'll just have to put up with it. Try not to do anything in his class, and you'll be fine. The Marauders, "she smiled slightly, "Will be back within the month, and hopefully that will take the spotlight off of you."

"Thanks, Professor," Frank said happily, and left the classroom for Herbology.

That night, Frank told Anthony about the change of plans, as well as what McGonagall had told him. "Everyone hates him, even the teachers! Why did Dumbledore bring him back?"

"I dunno, but I wonder why he wanted you to do that? I mean, what's the point of trimming a killer tree?"

"I dunno, maybe he wants me to get killed or something…"

"Wouldn't put it past him," Anthony muttered.

* * *

The week went by without any major happenings until Friday after dinner. Frank was passing by a disused classroom when he heard angry voices coming from the other side of the door. Hesitating, he decided to listen once he heard his name mentioned.

"What were you thinking, John? Assigning Longbottom a detention like that! Not only is it inappropriate, but you know what it could mean! Lupin shares a dormitory with him!" he heard McGonagall say angrily.

Frank was confused. _What does Remus have to do with my detention?_

"I merely thought—"

"There is no way you can worm yourself out of this one, John, you know perfectly well what you meant to do! I will be reporting this to the Headmaster!"

"It won't matter," Schulte said smugly, "he won't fire me, nobody else will take the job!"

"Better having nobody teaching the students than you! And…" she whispered something Frank could not quite hear to Schulte, but it sounded like "Don't you dare assign that…" Frank could not make out the word, "…essay to the seventh years, otherwise I will see to it that you are sacked immediately! School means everything to that poor boy, and you make it no better for him! He has enough to put up with already without you!"

Frank heard angry footsteps coming from the other side of the door, and he quickly resumed walking, hoping McGonagall would not suspect him of eavesdropping. Thankfully, all she said was, "Good evening, Mr. Longbottom," in a slightly kinder tone than normal.

He returned to the common room, and was about to tell Anthony what he had heard, when he decided against it. Instead, he went up to the dormitory to think. _What does Remus have to do with my detention…or is it the Whomping Willow? _he wondered. _What essay does McGonagall not want assigned? And who was she talking about? Me, or Remus, or someone else?

* * *

_

Frank walked to McGonagall's office the following night. When he sat down, he was surprised to see McGonagall smiling at him. "I have a rather…interesting detention set up for you, Mr. Longbottom," she said, "You may either write, 'I hate Professor Schulte' fifty times, then rant about him all you want on the parchment, write 'Professor Schulte is a git' fifty times, and then rant, or John's original one, 'I will not talk in class' five hundred times. Your choice."

Frank stared at her. "Don't worry, nobody will know. I will tell John that you did his lines, and if he questions me, I can take it to the Headmaster." McGonagall was grinning now, something Frank had not thought possible. "Get to work, or I'm sure John will get me on some trumped-up charge."

Frank grinned too. He decided on the first, and had the lines done in five minutes. He then proceeded to rant about Schulte for the rest of the roll of parchment—in cramped handwriting that reminded him of Snape—and finally handed it to McGonagall an hour after he started. After glancing at it, she smiled and dismissed him.

When he returned to the common room, he found Anthony waiting for him. "What took you so long?" he asked Frank as he sat down, "Was McGonagall that bad?"

"Actually, it was the best detention I've ever served…" and he told him about his "lines". By the time he was finished, Anthony was grinning like a maniac.

"That's brilliant! I didn't know McGonagall had it in her!"

"Neither did I," said Frank, "This should go down in Hogwarts history, McGonagall spiting another teacher! And she says that she never speaks ill of her colleagues…she just spoke through me!"


	20. XX

**XX.**

The next morning found James and Lily yelling at a group of Healers. "Lady, I feel fine! I want to go back to Hogwarts!" James yelled at one of the Healers.

She cringed but stood her ground. "You've only been here a week; you need to stay another at least!"

"Another week? _Another week? _Lady, going to Hogwarts is like going home! Our parents are _dead_, our whole town is _dead_, we have nowhere else to go! I'm going back to Hogwarts tomorrow, and nobody can stop me!"

Lily was of like mind. She was saying to the lead Healer impatiently, "I've already missed three weeks of school, and I have to sit my N.E.W.T.s this year! I can't miss too many classes!"

They continued to argue for a while, their friends sitting silently beside them. Finally, Dumbledore walked into the ward. "What is this?" he asked loudly. Everyone immediately quieted, and James spoke.

"Professor, we want to go back to school tomorrow, but they—" he jerked his finger at the Healers impatiently, "—want us to stay another week! I want to go back to school!"

"Do you feel better?" Dumbledore asked.

"Of course I do, would I be arguing if I didn't?"

"But if the Healers want you to stay…"

James rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to retort, but Remus intervened quickly, "Professor, they're ready to go back, they'll drive the Healers insane!"

Chuckling, Dumbledore considered them. "Have you told them about what happened?" he directed at Lily.

"We were going to after we made sure we're going back to school."

"Heidi," Dumbledore said to the lead Healer, "if they say they feel fine, let them go back to school. It'll be a relief to get them out of your hair so you can concentrate on more critical patients." James was extremely grateful to Dumbledore at that moment; he was a great reasoner, and almost always won arguments because of it.

"I don't know…" the Healer, Heidi, said.

"They will want to go back to Hogwarts for N.E.W.T. preparation," Dumbledore prompted.

She hesitated again before answering, "If you think it would be for the best, Dumbledore…"

"I know it would be for the best. I want those two—and the others, if they wish—to be released tomorrow by five o'clock. That way Lily and James will be back for dinner; I will have a feast set up."

"Er, Professor?" Sirius said tentatively. "…I kinda promised a huge party, the day…" he trailed off, but James understood at once.

"Ah…" Dumbledore said thoughtfully, "so the feast would be better scheduled for Wednesday?"

"Yeah," Sirius said earnestly.

"Very well, a party for the Gryffindors on Tuesday, and a feast on Wednesday! I will inform the house elves."

"Thanks, Professor!" Sirius said happily.

"Now I must leave, I will see you all tomorrow!" Dumbledore said cheerfully, and left the ward.

"Leave. Now." Sirius snarled at the Healers. They hesitated, but seeing the angry look on Sirius' face, they, too, left quickly.

"Now," Sirius said, calming down, "you two have a _lot _of explaining to do…"

"Yes, I know we do," Lily said patiently, "but it's a rather long story…"

"We're not going anywhere until tomorrow to get the party ready," Remus said stubbornly, "We want to know what happened to you two, and why you looked the way you did last Friday!"

"All right," Lily said, and began by telling them about the attack on Reading. By the end of that part, all of their mouths were hanging open in shock.

"You…you yelled at Voldemort?" Laurie asked faintly.

"Yep, we paid for it though. That's the reason he took us and not Frank and Alice, they didn't say anything."

"If you're shocked by that, we might want to stop," James said seriously, "it only gets worse from there."

"No, no, keep going!" Peter pleaded. James then began the story of their stay at Malfoy Manor; however, he soon had to stop when he mentioned Snape.

"Snivellus knew you were there?" Sirius yelled, outraged. "Why didn't he tell Dumbledore?"

"Because he hates us, remember?" James said patiently, "If he was somewhere and nobody but you knew where he was, would you tell anyone?"

"If it was anyone but him, yes," Sirius said scathingly, "But I don't know about Snivellus…"

"Exactly. That's the way he feels about us."

They continued, one filling in for the other when they could not remember. When they got to the letter, Remus said, surprised, "You sent that on the fourth? It got to Hogwarts on the fourteenth! What took the owl so long?"

"We wondered the same thing…"

"How did you know it took so long?" Sarah asked faintly. It seemed as if she had trouble comprehending that all of this had happened to her best friend.

"Whenever we blacked out, we seemed to have these funny dreams, like visions. Most of them were you lot in the common room, but a couple were in the Great Hall as well."

"That is odd…" Remus said thoughtfully, "I've never heard of that."

"Neither had any of us, that's why we were so confused."

They continued, and when they told them of Voldemort's "torture sessions", all of them made sounds of outrage.

"What the hell did he think he was doing?" Sirius yelled, "He had no right…"

"He didn't," James agreed, "but it wasn't like there was anything we could do about it."

Sirius opened his mouth to argue the point, but Lily intervened. "Sirius, there was absolutely nothing any of us could do about it. We were wandless, locked up, and weak, as opposed to Voldemort, who had his wand, was completely in charge, and ridiculously powerful."

Sirius closed his mouth, defeated, and they continued with their narrative. "Once McGonagall got us out, we ran away and joined the battle—" Lily was saying, but James interrupted her.

"—where we kicked some major Death Eater butt, of course! And then we and Malfoy had a shouting match, and he hit us with that orange curse—"

"Morte Lenta," Remus corrected him.

"Yeah, that, then we wound up here," James finished triumphantly, "Anything else you want to know?"

"Yeah, how are you still sane?" Sirius asked them, "I'm not kidding; most everyone else would have gone mad!"

"To be honest, I don't really know," James said truthfully, "I guess the knowledge that we were going to be rescued, plus having friends there, really helped."

"And," Sarah said suddenly, "What did you have to eat there? You're skin and bone!"

Lily's face darkened. "Do you really want to know?"

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't," Sarah pressed, "C'mon!"

"Ok, we had one piece of moldy bread and a cup of muddy water—" they let out loud exclamations of anger, "—every other day."

"You're joking," Laurie said firmly after a stunned silence.

"Why would we joke about that?" James asked her seriously, "That's what we ate; you can ask Arthur or Madame Pomfrey. It's the truth."

"How did you survive, mate?" Sirius asked, his gray eyes wide with horror.

"I told you, I dunno."

The friends lapsed into an uneasy silence; Lily and James thought that they had perhaps told their friends too much, and their friends were horrified at the thought of their best friends going through it.

After a few minutes, Lily said abruptly, "Where's Petunia?"

Sarah shrugged. "Last I saw her was on the eighteenth when we first came here, haven't seen her since. I think the sight of you in that state frightened her."

"I saw her the other day," Peter said abruptly, "Up on the fifth floor, in that little café. She said she was going to live with your grandmother…"

Lily's eyes widened. "How is she going to take care of herself? Grandmother's really old and ill, she can't take care of Petunia!"

"Maybe she plans to take care of your grandmother," Remus suggested.

"I dunno…" Lily said, "but I'm sure she's going to run off and get her own place in two years when she turns eighteen," to Sirius' questioning look, she said, "Muggles come of age at eighteen, like we come of age at seventeen."

"Oh."

"I just hope she's all right," Lily said worriedly.

"Petunia's not stupid, she'll be fine," Sarah reassured her. Lily nodded, obviously not convinced.


	21. XXI

**XXI.**

Frank went downstairs to the common room early on Tuesday to find Sirius, Remus, and Peter sitting at a table, bending over a piece of parchment. "Oi!" he called over to them. "What are you doing here? Where's James?"

"Can't say what we're doing, but James is coming back tonight at five o'clock." Sirius explained.

Frank whooped. "So they're all right?"

"They are now, but they were a sight last Monday, nearly unrecognizable!" Sirius said, shaking his head at the memory.

"But they're all right now?"

"Yeah, but still rail thin and pale," when Frank opened his mouth to question him, Sirius continued, "we know what happened, but it isn't our right to tell anyone. It's Lily's and James'. But I'm sure you'll be one of the first to hear their story, seeing as you were in Reading and all…"

"Are you guys going to skip classes today?"

"Yeah, gotta get this set up," Remus answered, smiling.

"Could you tell all the Gryffindors to go straight to dinner after their last class and not to come up until six? It could be your last action as Head Boy," Sirius said, winking at him. "But don't tell anyone about us or Lily and James, we want it to be a surprise!"

"All right," Frank said, "You three might want to go up to the dormitory if you don't want anyone seeing you…"

Sirius stood up. "We'll do that, thanks. See you tonight at six! And don't let anyone in until then."

Frank smiled. "All right."

Apparently Frank had spread the word around that the common room was off-limits, for nobody interrupted the Marauders' work through the entire day. At four-forty-five, they had the whole common room ready, and began their walk to Dumbledore's office.

When they arrived ten minutes later, Dumbledore was sitting at his desk, reading. When they entered, he looked up and smiled. "Ready to bring them back to Hogwarts?"

"Yep, we had the common room off limits all day so we could get it set up," Sirius explained, grinning, "How are they coming?"

"The Floo Network," Dumbledore answered, "I thought it would be easiest."

"Five minutes to wait, then," Peter said unnecessarily.

Five minutes went by, and the fire in the grate turned green. Sarah stepped out, grinning. "Hey, guys!" she said happily. Soon Laurie, Lily and James, who were carrying their trunks, followed her.

"Picked them up this morning," James explained.

"I'm going to go down to dinner, or people will start wondering where I am," Dumbledore said, "You seven should get up to Gryffindor Tower."

They nodded, and the eight of them left to their separate destinations. Arriving at the Tower ten minutes later, Sirius gave the password, "Winter rose", and showed them into the common room.

Their expressions were hilarious, at least to Sirius. Lily and James' mouths dropped open in surprise, and Sarah and Laurie gasped loudly. The room was completely red and gold, with huge banners that proclaimed, "Welcome Home Lily and James". There were streamers hanging from the ceiling and red and gold confetti falling from it like colored snow. There were large posters of Lily and James grinning, sporting positive comments, but there were also some that depicted Voldemort that read, "Die Voldy Die!"

All of the tables, plus more that had been added, were full of food, especially Lily and James' favorites. Chocolate éclairs, apple pies, strawberries with cream…the works!

"It's perfect!" Lily exclaimed to the boys, "And you did this all today?"

"Yep, Frank told everyone that the common room was off-limits, so we could get it done in secret," Sirius explained.

"I think he might have told the Fat Lady not to let anyone in, we heard some yelling from outside…" Remus said, grinning, "some girl, around lunchtime said she needed her Transfiguration book…"

"Hope McGonagall didn't nail her too bad," Sarah said worriedly.

"Don't worry, she'll know why she couldn't get in," James said, smiling. "And what's with the 'welcome home' on those banners?"

"Well, seeing as Reading is sort of nonexistent, we figured that this would be your home, seeing as you're here for most of the year anyways…"

After bring Lily's and James' trunks up to their dormitories, the sat around doing nothing until ten to six, when pounding could be heard on the other side of the portrait hole.

"Let us in!" someone yelled. Sirius grinned wickedly.

"Right, here's your guys' big entrance—James, go get the Invisibility Cloak, and you two go stand on the chairs by the portrait hole," he told them quietly.

"But won't they be confused if they see signs welcoming us back but not us?" Lily asked.

"Nah, once everyone is inside and confused, you two will throw off the cloak—to me—and say 'Hi!' and scare the pants off of the rest of the House. I've got the Head pin from Kristin, and Frank has his, so you can officially be crowned Heads again," Sirius said. "Good plan?"

They nodded, and James hurried upstairs for the cloak. "If anyone is in there—which doesn't make sense because the whole house is out here—let us in! C'mon!" Alice yelled.

"Got it!" James said in a loud whisper, coming down the stairs again with the cloak.

"Great, you two get under it and stand over there," Sirius instructed, pointing at the two chairs. They nodded, and disappeared under the cloak. Quiet footsteps could be heard going across the room.

"What is the meaning of this?" came McGonagall's angry voice.

"I was instructed not to let anyone inside the common room until six o'clock," the Fat Lady said patiently.

"Oh," McGonagall said, and from what Sirius could tell, she was suppressing a smile. "You'll have to wait another five minutes then."

Angry outbursts followed this announcement. "Why won't you let us in?" Alice asked the Fat Lady.

"Because I was instructed not to," the Fat Lady repeated, "You'll see why when you get inside."

Four minutes passed. "Ready?" Sirius said in a whisper that carried across the common room.

"Ready," James answered

The five situated themselves in the middle of the common room and began grinning like maniacs; another plan to confuse the Gryffindors even more.

Another minute passed, and the Fat Lady said, "Ok, it's six—"

"WINTER ROSE!"

"Fine, fine!" she said indignantly, and she swung out to admit them. The first people to scramble inside stopped dead in their tracks, making the people behind crash into them.

"Move!" yelled an impatient boy near the back, "Let us in!"

The people in front moved up slowly, and finally the whole house was staring in awe at the decorations. "So," Vicky said finally, "We're supposed to be welcoming them, where are they?"

The five didn't answer, just stood there grinning as the rest of the house tried to recover from the shock of seeing the common room transformed.

And then, Sirius winked.

James took off the Cloak and threw it to Sirius, who caught it and put it into his pocket. Then, before anyone could realize what was going on, James and Lily both yelled, "_Hi!_"

Quite a few people screamed and spun around. It took them a few seconds to realize what they were seeing. The first person to recover was Alice, who screamed again, ran up to Lily, and gave her a huge hug. "Welcome back!"

This seemed to break the spell over the rest of the house. Everyone started cheering, and they ran up to the two. "Welcome back!" many people roared; however, Anthony got straight to the point. "Where were you?"

"With Voldemort," James yelled to him over the screaming and yelling. Instantly, the whole House went silent, waiting for him to continue. "Not now," he told them, "maybe in a week or two."

Many groans followed this announcement. Sirius yelled over the noise, "It's not exactly G-rated, just to let you know. If you're at all faint hearted…"

"Would we be in Gryffindor if we were faint hearted?" Anthony asked loudly.

"I dunno, I do wonder about some of you…" he said, smiling.

The House seemed indignant. "We're not faint-hearted!" yelled a fourth year.

"Sure you're not," Sirius said, still grinning.

"Guys," Remus yelled loudly, "We're supposed to be throwing a party for James and Lily, remember? And I believe we have some badges to return!" Frank walked up to James and handed him the Head Boy badge, and Sirius gave the Head Girl badge to Lily. "To our Heads!" Sirius yelled, beginning to applaud, and everyone else quickly followed suit. Both Lily and James turned very pink.

"Let's party!" Remus yelled. Everyone cheered again, and made their way over to the food.

"Attention!" James yelled. Instantly, the whole room went silent. "I challenge you all to a hotdog eating contest!" Many people laughed. "I'm serious!" James said earnestly.

"No, I'm Sirius, but go ahead," Sirius said, smirking.

James rolled his eyes and said, "Whoever beats me will get a surprise…" he noticed skeptical looks on many of his housemates' faces, "I mean a good one, one that will benefit you!"

With that addition, many people volunteered, and Sirius levitated five tables together. "Whoever eats the most hotdogs is the winner!" he declared.

"Hang on," Anthony said, "you haven't said what happens if James wins!"

James grinned mischievously. "You'll have to wait and see, my friend."

"Each of you will have an unlimited number of hotdogs, as well as an unlimited supply of water. If you put your napkin on your plate, you forfeit. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads. "Excellent. Just tell your house elf—" he snapped his fingers, and an elf appeared by each contestant, "—what you want on your hotdog. You may…begin!"

And begin they did. Most of the girls, along with the remaining three Marauders, had opted to watch, and most of them were amazed at the number of hotdogs James was putting away. While most of the other boys were on their second, he was already on his fifth.

The first person to forfeit was a first year, after eating ten. The rest of the contestants kept at it. More dropped out at around twenty, while James was still going strongly on his twenty-fifth.

Finally, it was just James and Anthony. James was only slightly slowing down, but Sirius suspected that it was to save himself from indigestion rather than lack of hunger. Finally, after thirty-seven hot dogs, Anthony gave up. James, seeing this, put down his forty-third.

"How do you do it?" Anthony asked him incredulously.

James merely shrugged. "Now, since _I _won," he grinned, which made many people go wide-eyed with terror, "we play…"

"Marauder Truth or Dare!"


	22. XXII

**XXII.**

The House was stunned. That game was infamous among all of the students at Hogwarts. "No way," someone said finally.

"Yes way," Sirius said, grinning evilly, "but no snogging for anyone under fourth year."

Many of the younger students breathed a sigh of relief. "If anyone thinks something is inappropriate for younger eyes, you'll just have to shut them, there's no getting out of dares!"

Sighing, the House sat down in a large circle. This would be a night to remember…

"All the food," Remus said, waving his wand, "will be within reach. Otherwise our hard work would have gone to waste!"

The hotdog-eating competitors groaned, but everyone else laughed. "So Prongs, spin the bottle!" Sirius said happily, setting an empty Butterbeer bottle in the middle of the circle. Grinning, James spun it. It landed on a tiny boy, who looked petrified.

"What year are you in?" James asked him.

"F…f…first, Mr. Potter," he stuttered.

James waved his hand. "None of that 'Mr Potter, I'm James. So, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

James thought for a moment. "Does anyone have a box of Bertie Bott's?" he asked the room.

Someone threw him one. "Now," James told the first year, "I want you to eat ten of these, all at once."

Relaxing slightly, he nodded, took the box, and put ten of the beans into his mouth. He sat still for a moment, then turned slightly green and swallowed them quickly. James nodded in approval, and the boy spun the bottle, which landed on a fourth year girl. "Truth or dare?"

Whenever somebody was out of ideas, the Marauders gave them some, and whenever the Marauders were up, chaos ensued. "Sirius, truth or dare?" Anthony asked, grinning.

"Dare," Sirius said immediately.

"I dare you," Anthony said, grinning even more, "to walk down the corridor until you meet a teacher, then propose to them." The room rang with roaring laughter.

"All right," Sirius said, standing up, "who's coming to watch?" The whole room stood up. "I take that back, only Anthony should come." Many grumbles followed this announcement. "C'mon, Anthony."

They crawled out of the portrait hole, and began walking. It didn't take long for them to find a teacher—unluckily for Sirius, it was McGonagall.

Before she could reprimand them in any way, Sirius got down on one knee, opened an imaginary box, and said, "Minnie, will you marry me?"

She stared at him. "Black, what…?"

"Will you marry me?" Sirius insisted, keeping a straight face, while Anthony doubled over in silent laughter behind him.

"Certainly not, Black, why would you think…"

Sirius started sobbing and fled down the corridor in the direction of the common room. McGonagall stared after him, shocked. "Lewis…?" she asked Anthony uncertainly.

"Marauder Truth or Dare, Professor," he explained, laughing. A look of comprehension dawned on her face after a moment.

"I see. Well, you might want to get back to your common room…" Anthony nodded and followed Sirius, though much more composedly.

When he got back to the common room, the Gryffindors were hysterical at Sirius' reenactment of his adventure. "And then," Sirius said, guffawing, "she said 'Certainly not, Black, why would you think…' and I started sobbing and ran away." They roared with laughter. "Oi, Anthony!" Sirius yelled to him, "Either of us get detention?"

"Nah, she was in too much shock!" More laughter.

Sirius and Anthony sat down in the circle again, and Sirius spun the bottle. It landed on Peter.

"Truth or dare, Wormtail?"

"…Dare."

"I dare you," Sirius said, grinning, "to perform a ballet," he conjured up a stage, "in a pink tutu." He conjured a violently magenta tutu.

The room rang with peals of laughter, and Peter turned a shade of pink to match his new tutu. A minute later, Peter was on the stage, performing pirouettes, to the amusement of the entire house. After thirty seconds of this atrocious dancing, Sirius called him off. "Enough!" he said, shutting his eyes in horror, "Just spin the bottle!"

Peter got down and spun the bottle. It landed on Lily. "Dare," she said immediately, without being asked.

Sirius suddenly grinned evilly, and whispered something into Peter's ear.

"Lily, I dare you…" Peter said, "…to snog James for a full five minutes." Several of the Gryffindors snorted.

Lily shrugged and tackled James. "Move it over, lovebirds," Sirius said, "so we don't waste five minutes of our game!"

They moved to an armchair by the fire. "Right," Remus said, "Sarah, spin, I doubt those two will be resurfacing soon." He was quite right. Fifteen minutes later, Sirius called over, "Oi! Prongs?"

"What?" came his muffled voice.

"It's been fifteen minutes!"

Now, James' head appeared over the back of the armchair. "It has?"

"Yeah, get back here, both of you!"

Both blushing and looking more than slightly ruffled, they resumed their places in the circle.

It was a fifth year's turn to spin, and it landed on Remus. "Truth or dare?" she asked him.

"Truth," he said warily.

The girl thought for a moment, and then her friend whispered something into her ear. Grinning, she said, "What is your deepest, darkest secret?"

Immediately the atmosphere of the room changed. Remus' amber-colored eyes seemed to flash gold for a moment, but perhaps it was just a trick of the light. His friends looked shocked, as well as slightly frightened.

"Well?" the girl prompted him.

Remus' mind was racing. He couldn't possibly tell them his true deep—and very dark—secret, so he invented. Forcing himself to blush, he said, "Well, I have a huge crush on…"

The girl's eyes lit up. "Who?"

"Laurie Victonia."

He knew it was a lie, and so did all of his friends. Laurie winked at him and gave him a reassuring smile that obviously said, "Good cover up."

All the girls squealed with excitement. "Laurie," Sirius said, holding an imaginary microphone to her mouth, "how do you feel about this recent development?"

"Well," Laurie said, smiling hugely, "I don't think Lupin is _too _bad, I mean…" They continued to lighten up the atmosphere until everyone but Remus was laughing their heads off. He was deep in thought.

It was a very good thing he had become a practiced liar over the years, otherwise he would not have been able to pull that off. He wondered what would have happened if he had told them the truth, or if they were playing with a Sneakoscope. _I'd probably be packing my bags now, _he thought glumly. He had been lucky with James, Sirius, Peter, Lily, Sarah, and Laurie, but he knew that if the rest of the Gryffindors knew about his "furry little problem", he would not be so lucky.

"Remus!" Sirius said, "Spin!"

"Ok," It landed on a third year girl known to be shy. "Truth or dare?"

"Dare," she said.

"I dare you," he grinned, "to call a Slytherin a stupid git," many more people grinned, "to his or her face."

The girl's face was a mask of shock. _Hey, kid, nothing could be worse than mine, _Remus thought wryly.

"All right," she said after a few moments, "Where?"

"Outside, and make sure there are witnesses. We'd," he gestured to himself and his friends, "would like to see it."

"Extra points if it's Snivellus," James spat the name with even more venom than usual. "If he starts hexing you, we'll step in. and you have to call Snivelly a 'greasy git'."

The girl nodded faintly. "So," Remus said kindly, "all you have to do is go up to a Slytherin outside tomorrow and call him a 'stupid git', or in Snape's case, 'greasy git'. Call it at...five o'clock, and we'll be there to make sure nothing happens to you."

She nodded again. "All right, spin."

Two hours later, the game had gone smoothly, and all of the seventh years had been picked but James. He was slightly let down by this, until one of Anthony's friends spun, and it landed on him. His face lit up immediately. "Dare."

The boy thought a minute. "Go out and touch the trunk of the Whomping Willow," he said finally.

Immediately the Gryffindors were cheering him on, but Remus intervened quickly. "There's hardly any moon out there, and that's really dangerous anyways! He could get killed!"

The house looked slightly let down. "But Remus…" Anthony whined.

"Do you want the center of our party killed the day he gets back?" Remus argued. "I won't let you do it, James!" He sent his friend a look that clearly said, _Even if you know how! _I don't want anything to happen!" That also had double meaning—of course, he didn't want James to get killed by the Willow, but he also didn't want anyone to get too near the tree—near enough to see the passageway, anyways.

"Fine, fine…" he said, then, "Get up into the girls' dormitory."

James rolled his eyes. He had learned, on the first day of term in his first year that boys were not allowed in the girls' dormitory. "That's impossible!"

"Either find a way, or break your dare streak," the boy teased. He hardened at once. James and Sirius had both made vows never to back down from a dare.

"Fine…" he muttered, and walked up to the girls' dormitory, examining it. Suddenly, he rushed up the stairs, and, predictably, tumbled down again. Unperturbed, he then attempted to shinny up the staircase, with one foot firmly placed on each wall. However, halfway up, he lost his footing and slid down, looking rather angry. After thinking for a few moments, he walked up the boys' staircase, coming down a minute later with his broomstick over his shoulder. He mounted it and began to fly up. However, the staircase was very narrow, and he kept bumping into the walls. He kept going, and a triumphant yell came from the top of the staircase a minute later. "Made it!"

The Gryffindors crowded at the bottom of the staircase, and sure enough, James was standing at the top of the slide, grinning.

"Hang on, I'm coming down!" They all stood back as James slid neatly down, still grinning enormously. Congratulating him loudly, nobody noticed a certain Transfiguration professor walk in and look, surprised, at the decorations. Then, she looked over at the large group of Gryffindors surrounding the girls' staircase. Listening, she heard everybody congratulating James on getting up. Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes. More Marauder Truth or Dare, she supposed…

Deciding to watch discreetly, she transformed into a cat and sat in a corner, watching and listening.

"Spin it, James," Sirius said cheerfully. McGonagall saw nothing wrong after half an hour, so she continued to watch.

"Truth or Dare?" a second year boy asked Remus.

"Dare."

"Go stand on top of one of those tables and sing 'I'm a Little Teapot', _with _the motions."

The house exploded. Remus, grinning, got onto the table and did as he was told. McGonagall smiled in spite of herself—he really had opened up since his first day at Hogwarts…

Laughing, Remus got down and spun the bottle. This proceeded for another half an hour, and once again, it landed on James.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth. I want a break."

"Right, so…why do your friends call you Prongs?"

James hesitated for a split second, but nobody but McGonagall noticed. "Well," he began, "I've always had a liking for forks. I had a collection when I was little, and they never let me live that down."

The room exploded with laughter once again. "They're called tines, James!" Frank laughed.

"Ah well, Prongs sounds better."

McGonagall narrowed her eyes. James was obviously not telling the truth…she would have to look into that later.

After another half an hour, they quit the game and dispersed to chat. "Who would have known?" she heard Frank ask Anthony, "James is obsessed with forks, and Remus' biggest secret is loving Laurie!"

McGonagall stiffened. They had asked Remus what his biggest secret was? He must have lied, saying he liked Miss Victonia rather than tell his real secret…

She reprimanded herself silently. What would any sane werewolf have done when faced with that question? Lie, and that's what Remus did! He had every right to!

More time passed, and many people had gone up to Lily and James and asked them about the past month. However, they just shooed them off.

McGonagall looked up at the clock, and was surprised to see that it was midnight. Unnoticed by everybody, she walked over to the portrait hole, transformed back, and sent purple sparks up into the air. The room quieted within seconds.

"McGonagall!" several people yelled.

"Do any of you have any idea what time it is?" she asked sternly.

"Midnight!" Sirius answered jubilantly. "So good of you to join us, Minnie…do you want pumpkin juice? Butterbeer? Hotdogs?"

McGonagall rolled her eyes. "I know that you all have good reason to celebrate, but you have classes tomorrow! Go up to your dormitories—you can celebrate tomorrow."

Nobody moved. "Go upstairs, or I will call Professor Dumbledore!"

Grumbling, the students began to make their way up to their dormitory. "Would the Marauders, Miss Evans, Miss Kellison, and Miss Victonia please stay a moment?" she called through the crowd.

The seven made their way slowly towards her. "Now," she said, after everybody was gone, "I must say that it is a great thing to have you back at this school," here, she smiled at Lily and James, "You will all start classes tomorrow."

"Ok," Sirius said, obviously at a loss as to where their conversation was going.

"I believe your first lesson is Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

"Yep!" Lily said happily.

"You will have a different professor—Professor Schulte."

Their faces turned from happy to horrified. "But…but…" James sputtered, "Where's Professor Silez?"

"She's dead," McGonagall explained sadly. "She died saving you two last week."

Lily's eyes filled up with tears. "So it's our fault that she's dead?"

"No it is not, Miss Evans, and I will not let you think that," McGonagall told her sternly. "We were all aware of the danger we were putting ourselves in. You will not brood over this, and you will not blame yourselves. _It was not your fault_!"

They nodded. "I know John can be unfair, but you'll just have to live with it. I have talked with him, and have made sure that any secrets anyone might be hiding will stay secret. " Remus blushed.

"And, along those lines, I noticed that you all were playing Truth or Dare. That explains, but does not excuse your behavior, Black."

"_What_?" Sirius said, appalled.

McGonagall sighed. "If today was any other day, and you were any other student, you would receive detention. However, under the circumstances…"

Sirius grinned. "Thanks, Minnie."

She glared at him before continuing, "Now, get up to bed, you'll want to be rested for tomorrow!"

They walked up to their separate dormitories. Frank greeted the Marauders enthusiastically as they entered. "Welcome back, guys!"

"I'm glad to be back, for one," James said, grinning, "I've got the perfect prank to play on Snivellus, which involves Cornish pixies, confetti, and licorice snaps!"

His roommates snorted. "When?" Sirius asked him.

"As soon as we can get our hands on some pixies…"

"Great!" Sirius said happily, "I'll order some!"

"You can order pixies?" Peter asked, perplexed.

"Yeah you can. How many?"

"A dozen should do it," he answered, "I'll pay you back later."

Turning to Frank, James said, "Tell you what, I'll tell you and Alice everything Saturday night, have her come up here. You both deserve to know."

Frank nodded, turning slightly pink. "I'll tell her."

"I suppose having Schulte tomorrow means that we have to stay awake," James said remorsefully, "I bet you that he won't even care that I've been locked up for a month!"

Frank nodded gloomily. "He hasn't changed at all, he gave me detention for nothing at all, and to trim the Whomping Willow's branches! McGonagall changed it though, so I only had to do lines in her office…"

"That's good," Remus said, looking slightly paler than usual, "Let's all go to bed, guys."

Everyone nodded, and soon they were in their four-posters. The Marauders fell asleep quickly, but Frank was awake and thinking—about the conversation he had overheard the previous week, about the Marauders' return, and…Remus.

Frank had not missed what had happened to his eyes when he had been asked what his secret was, nor did he miss his hesitation. What secret could Remus Lupin, quiet, studious, albeit Maraudering, Remus Lupin possibly be hiding?


	23. XXIII

**XXIII.**

The next morning when James descended the dormitory stairs with his friends, the whole House seemed to be waiting at the bottom. Immediately, they began cheering, and formed a sort of posse behind James and Lily as they headed down to breakfast.

When they entered the Great Hall, the other three houses looked around. The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs burst into applause, while the Slytherins ignored them completely and went back to their breakfast.

Once all of the Gryffindors were seated at their table, Dumbledore stood up, and the Hall was quiet. "As you can see, Miss Evans and Mr Potter are back at Hogwarts with us." Cheering. "I hope that you will welcome them back warmly." More applause. "Tonight at six-thirty, we will have a feast to celebrate their return, so be prepared for that as well." He sat down again, and instantly the Hall burst into chatter once again.

As the Marauders and their friends walked out of the Hall to their Defense class, the seventh year Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs followed them. "Are you going to tell us what happened?" Kristin asked Lily.

"Maybe at the Leaving Feast, maybe earlier." Lily assured her as they walked down the hallway toward Schulte's classroom.

Kristin nodded, satisfied, and a minute later they took their seats. The seven friends took the last row, wanting to stay as far away from Schulte as possible.

The Slytherins walked in a minute later, and a few minutes later, Schulte himself came in. Glancing around the classroom, his gaze lingered on the Marauders.

"So," he sneered, "the infamous Marauders are back."

"Yes, we are," Sirius said defiantly, "is there a problem?"

Schulte did not answer. Instead, he walked over to his desk and opened the textbook. "Turn to page 256."

Glancing at each other, the class did as they were told. And on that page were…

"Werewolves," Schulte said loudly, over the class' muttering.

"Professor?" Kristin asked cautiously, "We already studied werewolves, in fifth year…"

"We will be studying them more _thoroughly _this year, Heidianos." Schulte sneered.

The class asked no more questions, so he continued, "There is one thing that is fatal to the werewolf; can anybody name it?"

Nobody moved for a moment, then Lily's hand regretfully raised into the air. Schulte took his time making sure nobody else was going to answer before saying, "Evans?"

"Silver," she said quietly.

"Yes. If a werewolf's skin comes into contact with silver, it will burn it. If silver is injected into their body, the result is death."

James hated Schulte with a passion, but he had to admit that he was an excellent teacher. He was infuriated that he was lecturing on werewolves, however. He was getting the impression that he was _trying _to give Remus away!

"Potter!" His head snapped up from his doodling, which involved Schulte being eaten by a werewolf pack, and he glared at his teacher. "Describe a werewolf's transformation!"

James put up quite a show of trying to remember—they had learned that two years previously, after all!—and finally said, "Well, it's supposed to be really painful…"

"And why is it painful?" Schulte sneered.

"Because…" he put up the façade of thinking again, "…well, his body has to change, doesn't it? From human to wolf, then back to human…"

"Correct," Schulte said, sounding regretful, "The werewolf transformation is said to rival, if not surpass, the pain of the Cruciatus Curse. Now…"

He continued to lecture until the end of the class, and then said, "Read the chapter on werewolves in your text, and then write four feet on the history, bite, transformation, treatment advances, recognizing in human and transformed state, killing, and society's treatment of werewolves, due to me Monday." Then the bell rang, and the students scrambled out of the class, eager to get to Charms. Any class was better than Defense at the moment…

* * *

After their last class, the Marauders were outside as promised to watch the girl pull off her dare. She had decided to let the Slytherins come to her, and was sitting under a tree. The Marauders went to sit with her. Under her questioning stare, Sirius said, "We attract Slytherins like you wouldn't believe. It might take you all day." She nodded and turned back to her book.

Sure enough, after only a minute, Snape walked up to the Marauders. "Got yourself a girlfriend, Lupin?" he sneered.

"Actually," he answered smoothly, "we just happen to be here at the same time. Unlike you, we're kind enough to share."

Snape snarled. "She looks like an idiot to me…"

"Yeah, well, being is idiot is better than being a greasy git like you!" the girl said, flaring up.

Snape stared at her, then said, "You were set up, they told you to say that!" He shot the Marauders one last murderous glare before walking away.

"That was great," Remus told the girl, who looked quite shaken. "Good job."

She nodded and ran off. "Let's go up to the feast, I'm starving."

They were soon in the Great Hall, where James and Lily held seats of honor. The food, oddly enough, seemed to be better than at the other feasts. Everyone was full and happy at the end of it, and sad to see it go.

* * *

Afterwards, however, the seventh years could be seen sitting in their respective common rooms, hard at work on their werewolf essay.

"Some idiot he is, eh?" Sarah said lightly, reading over her few paragraphs, "And on werewolves, too…"

"Yeah, how much do you have written?" Sirius asked distractedly, "I've got two feet, three inches…"

"He'll probably give us bad grades," James said bitterly, "just because…" he trailed off.

"Yeah, probably will," Remus said gloomily, "If anyone finds out, he's going to find himself mysteriously murdered…"

"A bit violent, are we, Moony?" Sirius said, laughing. "Still, I wouldn't blame you…"

They worked in silence for a while, until Sirius said, "What did he want after transformation?"

"Treatment advances," Lily answered. "I've got three and a half feet, and I've just finished 'killing'. You think I can stretch out the last one for six inches?"

"Might be able to, just write real big," Laurie said, borrowing Sirius' ruler. "Let's see…three foot four. You reckon I can add a nice little concluding paragraph at the end? I don't think I can stretch out their treatment for eight inches…"

"Yeah, you do that…" Remus said. "Four foot four, and I've still got their treatment to do. That'll probably make it over five feet…"

Everyone started laughing. Remus looked highly affronted. "What?" he asked defensively.

"You…just said…" Sirius choked out, "…that you could write…about society's treatment…of werewolves…for a whole foot…in your tiny…handwriting!" he finished with great difficulty.

"Well, Padfoot, he probably could," James said logically. Sirius just shook his head and laughed even harder.

"I've only got three feet and five inches," Peter complained after another half-hour of silence, "and I did everything he asked us to!"

"Just take some of Moony's," Sirius told him, "he's got plenty of info!"

Sighing resignedly, Remus slid his not-quite-finished essay toward Peter. "Don't take too much from each section, and _paraphrase it_!"

He nodded and began to write, occasionally looking up at Remus' paper. "Thanks!" he said after another twenty minutes, "Four feet!"

Remus pulled his essay back towards him. "Now I just need to finish up…"

Everyone was finally finished by one o'clock. "Well," Lily yawned, "I'm going up to bed." The other six nodded their agreement, and everyone was soon up in their respective dormitories.

"Hey," Frank said as the Marauders walked in. He had opted to write in the dormitory rather than in the loud and distracting common room. "Some essay, eh?"

"Yeah," James said, scowling, "Four feet! I'll be surprised if he lives through the week!"

Frank laughed. "How much do you guys have written?"

"Four feet," James, Sirius, and Peter said, at the exact time Remus said, "Five and a half."

Frank stared at him. "How did you do that?"

Remus thought quickly. "I've always been interested in werewolves. I really don't see why people are so prejudiced; they're only dangerous on the full moon!"

Frank still looked surprised. "But still…wow. I only have four-two, and I can't think of anything else to put in!"

Remus shrugged. "Let's just go to bed." Everyone agreed, and all five were soon asleep. However, a certain non-Marauder's dreams were plagued with werewolves and untold secrets.

* * *

On Thursday afternoon, the seventh years had History of Magic. As usual, nobody listened—in fact, most people were working on their essay.

Frank, who sat to the left of the Marauders, glanced over at them. They seemed to be planning something—something that looked suspiciously like the prank James had been talking about. Or, at least, it had "_Snivellus_" written across the top in large letters. Frank laughed inwardly—the Marauders had never been very subtle…

He went back to reading his essay. He was on the "recognizing" part and having trouble. "Sirius?" he whispered to the Marauder nearest to him.

"Eh?" he said in response, not taking his eyes off the parchment.

"What color eyes to werewolves generally have in their transformed state?"

Sirius then turned around. "Thought you said you finished that," he said, grinning.

"Just proofing it."

"Right—they're gold in werewolf form."

"Thanks," and Sirius turned back to his friends. Frank started writing it in, then stopped. _Remus' eyes flashed gold during truth or dare…_

He pushed that thought out of his mind. _That was just the lights, _he told himself firmly, _they didn't really change color..._

He finished reading his essay, and decided to read it again, seeing as he had nothing better to do. The bell finally rang, and Frank could hear James saying, "So, Sirius gets the pixies, I get the licorice snaps, and Remus gets the confetti. Everything should be in, when…next Thursday?"

"Yep, express mail from Diagon Alley, allow a week for delivery. We can pull it on Saturday, then."

"And then," James said in an undertone, "_It's _on the eighth, so we should plan that as well."

Frank was confused. _What _was on February eighth? However, he didn't get the chance to ask them, because they had already run off through the crowd. Frank pushed that out of his mind. It was probably something really stupid and inconsequential…

* * *

The rest of the week flew past, and Hogwarts seemed to be going back to normal. Well, as normal as Hogwarts could be, anyways. On Sunday, James and Snape had their first major run-in since James' return to school. Snape blocked James in the hall and gave him his trademark sneer. "So, the infamous Potter is back!"

James glared at him. "You know, there's enough evidence against you to turn you over to Filch and the 'old methods'. And then you'd have to go to Madame Pomfrey, who isn't very happy with you either…"

Many students had stopped to watch, wondering what was going on. "I don't know what you're talking about, Potter," Snape sneered.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, Snivellus," James spat, "even if nobody else does!"

Snape turned to the curiously watching crowd. "Do any of you know what Potter's talking about?"

Lily strode to the front of the crowd to face Snape eye-to-eye. "I know exactly what he's talking about, _Snivelly_," she said quietly, yet loudly enough for everybody to hear. "He's right, Madame Pomfrey isn't too pleased with you either."

"I didn't ask you, Mudblood!" James had his wand on him in a heartbeat.

"You asked if she knew what I was saying she does. She knows full well," James said in a deathly tone.

"What's going on here?" McGonagall said, pushing to the front of the crowd, taking in the sight of James, with his wand on Snape, who was smirking, and Lily, who was red-faced with anger. "You three, come with me." The crowd was completely silent as the four walked in the direction of McGonagall's office. She conjured up three chairs, and said, "Explain yourselves."

James and Snape began talking at the same time. "He blocked me in the hall, Professor…"

"He said I was guilty of something or other…"

"Silence!" McGonagall said sharply. "Potter, you first."

"Snape blocked me in the hall and started insulting me, and then I said that he could get into huge trouble because of the evidence against him. He said he didn't know what I was talking about, but he did, then he asked all the people watching if they knew what I was talking about. Lily did, and told him so, and he called her a Mudblood and said he didn't ask her. I put my wand on him but didn't do anything to him, and then you showed up."

McGonagall nodded. "Snape?"

"I did stop him in the hall, but then he started accusing me and threatening me with Filch and the "old ways", and then going to Madame Pomfrey, who apparently isn't very happy with me. I didn't know what he was talking about, so I asked everybody else. Apparently, Evans did, and told me so. I said that I didn't ask her, and Potter put his wand on me."

McGonagall scrutinized him before saying, "Very well, Evans?"

"James and Snape were arguing, then Snape asked if anyone knew what James was talking about. I went up and told him that I did, and that he should know as well, and then he called me a Mudblood and said that he didn't ask me—which he did—and then James pulled out his wand, and you came."

McGonagall looked at them, deep in thought. "Potter," she said finally, turning to him, "What is it exactly that you think Snape did?"

"He knew where we were, Professor!" James exploded, "He was there!"

McGonagall stared at James. Then she blinked and turned to Snape. "Is this true?" He didn't answer, but instead decided to glare a hole through the carpet. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. You and I are going to go have a talk with the Headmaster, Snape," she said, giving him a death glare worse than the one she used for the Marauders' worst pranks, "You two may go."

Lily and James nodded, and they left, followed soon after by Snape and McGonagall, heading in the direction of Dumbledore's office.

They were soon back in the common room, where their friends were waiting for them. "What'd McGonagall want?"

"Wanted to know what happened," James replied. "We told her, and so did Snape, but I think she believed us more. Then McGonagall asked me what I was accusing him of, and I told her, and she gave him her evil glare worse than the one she gives us," James smiled fondly at the memory, "and she said we could come back here, and she took Snivellus to Dumbledore."

"He had it coming, though," Sarah said logically, "What do you think he was doing at the Death Eater's hideout, anyways?"

"Probably in training to become one," Sirius said scathingly.

"Wouldn't put it past him."


	24. XXIV

**XXIV.**

That night, the Marauders, Frank, and Alice gathered in the seventh year boys' dormitory. "So you're going to tell us what happened?" Alice asked James.

"Yeah, I am. You guys will be the first to know, aside from my friends of course," James gestured at Sirius, Remus, and Peter.

He then proceeded to tell Frank and Alice what he and Lily had told their friends. Half an hour later, he finished, and observed their reactions. Alice's eyes were full of tears, and had her head on Frank's shoulder. He looked as if he had been petrified. "How are you still sane?" she asked them tearfully.

"Dunno," James said, shrugging, "having friends with us really helped."

"Bloody hell, James!" Frank said, coming out of his stupor. "Forget sane, how are you still _alive_?"

"Same answer, I dunno." Both of them still looked very pale. "Are you all right?"

They didn't answer. "C'mon, cheer up! I'm ok, aren't I? It's in the past!" They nodded numbly. "Right, we're going back to the common room, are you two coming?"

"Yeah."

They descended the stairs, Frank and Alice still very pale and shocked. The Marauders went to sit with Lily, Sarah, and Laurie. "How did they take it?" Lily asked.

"About as bad as I thought they would," James said, sitting down, "Just shocked, is all."

"Well, who wouldn't be?" Laurie asked, "It's something straight out of a nightmare!"

* * *

The next morning when the Marauders walked into the Great Hall for breakfast, the mail was just arriving. Remus' copy of the Sunday Daily Prophet came soaring towards him. He took a sip of coffee as he opened it up, and promptly sprayed it across the breakfast table. "Just now?" he sputtered, recovering.

"What?" the other six asked.

Remus read aloud,

"_Potter, Evans, Pomfrey, and Weasley Found at Last"_

"_On the morning of January 22nd, the entire staff of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry went out to save four missing persons, acting on a letter._

_Upon arrival at the place to where they had been directed, the staff, along with many of the Ministry's Aurors, found He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in a meeting with his Death Eaters. Once the meeting adjourned, a battle ensued, in which eleven Aurors, one teacher—Susan Silez, and two Death Eaters were killed. An additional fifteen were captured and sent to Azkaban._

_Meanwhile, Minerva McGonagall, Horace Slughorn, Pomona Sprout, and Filius Flitwick—the four House Heads—were in the dungeons rescuing James Potter and Lily Evans, who have been missing since the attack on Reading in December, Poppy Pomfrey, who has been missing since a trip to St Mungo's in November, and Arthur Weasley, who disappeared mysteriously in October. All four of them were alive, but not well._

"_They were so thin," recalled Minerva McGonagall, Gryffindor Head of House at Hogwarts. "I've never imagined that happening to anyone, let alone two of my students and a co-worker!"_

_Quoting Heidi Forah, the head Healer who treated the four before their release, "I don't think I've ever seen such advanced stages of starvation as those four showed. They also seemed to have been subjected to extensive torture, and exposed to the winter elements. Why You-Know-Who would go so far as to torture innocent souls like those four, I cannot possibly imagine."_

_(Continued on page 2)_

_(For more about the prisoners, turn to page 3)_

_(For more about You-Know-Who, turn to page 4)_

Flipping to the respective pages, Remus discovered that the pages were completely filled with the same article. "You realize that people are going to question you more than ever now?"

"That article gives away more than I'd like," James said, shaking his head.

Glancing up, he saw that most of the Hall was looking in their general direction. "Great," Lily muttered, "Just what we need—more attention."

Sure enough, the Marauders were bombarded with even more questions as the day wore on. Finally, at dinner, Sirius had had enough. Standing up on his bench, he sent sparks into the air. The Hall gradually quieted.

"Look, guys," Sirius said in an irritated voice. "You all read the article and know pretty much what happened. Can't you just leave it at that for now? Put yourselves in their position; let's say that just happened to you. Would _you _be comfortable reliving something like that? Hm?"

Nobody in the hall was looking Sirius in the eye any more. Most of them were looking in the direction of their shoes, ashamed. "I didn't think so. Give them time—most likely they'll spill at the Leaving Feast. Isn't that good enough?" Everyone nodded quickly. "Good. Now, if I hear anybody asking them, you'll be the object of our next prank. You do _not _want that." He sat down again, and everyone began applauding. Sirius just waved an airy hand and returned to his potatoes.

* * *

Nobody saw Snape that weekend, though the whole school noticed on Monday that the Slytherin hourglass was completely empty. "Serves him right," Sarah said as they passed it on their way to Herbology. Snape showed up halfway through class. Professor Sprout treated him with icy indifference, as did Professor Kettleburn, who had been released from St. Mungo's the day Lily and James had; however, nobody but the seven friends, along with Snape, knew why.

"Nice going on the house points, Snivellus!" James called after him on their way to lunch. Many people laughed—everybody somehow knew that it was Snape who had lost Slytherin all of their points.

"Can't wait for Defense," Lily said sarcastically as she helped herself to a sandwich.

"Really," Remus said gloomily, "He'd better not make it obvious, or I'm going to have to get very good at Memory Charms very quickly…"

They laughed. "I'm sure Dumbledore would be happy to do it for you," James assured him, "Or McGonagall, she'd be livid…"

"She'd be livid about what?" asked Frank, pausing on his way down the table. Sirius blinked, but quickly recovered.

"If Schulte counted down on Remus' essay just because it was a foot and a half longer than what he asked for."

Frank nodded sympathetically. "That would be really stupid," he agreed, "He probably will, though, being Schulte…"

The seven nodded gloomily. "Probably."

Once they finished lunch, they trudged up the staircase to the Defense classroom. "If we have another lesson on werewolves…" Remus muttered.

When they sat down in their usual seats at the back of the classroom, only about half of the class was there. Most of them were nervously reading over their essays, trying to think of anything they might have missed.

Schulte walked in just as the bell rang, with Snape walking in a minute later. When Schulte said nothing, James scowled. If that had been any Gryffindor, they would have gotten points off, if not detention.

"I believe you all have an essay due to me today," Schulte said, "Heidianos, collect them."

Kristin obediently stood up and began collecting the essays. When she picked up Remus', she looked very surprised. It was the longest, and therefore heaviest, essay in the class. She brought them back to Schulte and sat down quickly. Schulte began leafing through the essays, pausing at Remus'. "Mr Lupin?" he said.

"Yes, Professor?" Remus asked, knowing what was coming.

"How long did I ask for your essay to be?"

"Four feet."

"And how long is your essay?"

"Five and a half feet, _sir_," Remus said, putting emphasis on the last word. Many people in the classroom gasped. A five and a half foot essay was completely foreign to them.

"Why did you write such a long essay, Mr Lupin?"

"Because I know a lot about werewolves," he said, choosing his words carefully, "I thought you wouldn't mind a longer essay,"

"You thought wrong, then," Schulte said, and walked over to the fire, throwing Remus' essay into it. The entire class stiffened. "You will hand in an essay to me that is exactly four feet long, no more and no less, on Wednesday, and you will earn partial credit."

"Yes, Professor," Remus said calmly, though on the inside he was seething mad—anyone could see that. Most of the class sympathized with him, though they were still curious as to how he managed to write five and a half feet on werewolves.

"Very well, let's get started on today's lesson…"

* * *

That night in the common room, Remus was extremely angry and snappy; nobody dared to go near him. Finally, he threw down his quill. "He'd better be happy with this, exactly four feet, and as much information as I could fit into it! You reckon he'd give me more credit if I turned it in tomorrow?

"Wouldn't risk it, he might burn it for 'overachieving' or something," James said, sitting down next to him now that he was not liable to explode on anybody, "Just turn it in on Wednesday."

Remus nodded. "He's such an idiot, though."

"I reckon you should tell McGonagall," Lily said, walking over.

"About what? The fact that he actually assigned a werewolf essay, or that he's making me redo it?"

"Well," Sirius said, thinking, "You could say something about it, and then let it slip that it was a werewolf essay. Or you could pretend to work on it tomorrow in Transfiguration…"

Remus' face lit up. "Yeah, I think I'll do that."

True to his word, Remus was poring over his werewolf essay the next day in Transfiguration instead of listening to McGonagall. "Lupin!" McGonagall said angrily.

"Yes, Professor?" Remus said, looking up.

"What are you working on?"

"My Defense essay."

"Did I give you permission to work on it during my class?"

"No, Professor, but Professor Schulte made me redo it because he didn't approve of it."

"Is this true?" McGonagall asked the rest of the class. They all nodded. "What happened?"

Kristin volunteered and said, "Professor Schulte told me to collect the essays, and Remus' was the longest. I brought them up to Professor Schulte, and when he found out that Remus' was five and a half feet long instead of four feet, he threw it in the fire."

"What was this four foot essay about?"

"Werewolves, Professor," she replied warily.

McGonagall's eyes flashed, but she said nothing except, "I will talk to John on your behalf, Mr Lupin. Now, please, put your essay away."

After class, James slapped Remus on the back. "Bulls-eye!" he said happily.

"Yeah, but the damage has already been done," Remus said gloomily, "Everybody's turned in their essays and done the research—I'm going to be surprised if I'm not packing my bags on the ninth…" he shivered.

"That's why we need to get to work on those Memory Charms, mate," Sirius said.

Remus just rolled his eyes. "C'mon, by the end of the eighth, it'll be all over school! How can I stay if everyone…ow!" he said a James elbowed him, "What was that for?"

"Frank," James muttered as he passed them. "Personally, I'm most worried about him; he's not stupid, _and_ he's our dormmate. And with that essay…" he shook his head, "You might have to get really good at Memory Charms."

* * *

That night in the staff room, the biggest row Hogwarts had seen in years took place between McGonagall and Schulte. They were standing at opposite ends of the room, and shouting as though they were on opposite ends of the Quidditch Pitch. Most of the other teachers stood in the corners of the room, either confused, or sided with McGonagall. None of them supported Schulte.

"I swear I'll have you fired, John!" McGonagall was yelling angrily, "I told you _specifically _not to assign that essay! I'm taking this to Albus, and I'm going to make sure you are sacked! The whole seventh year will know after the full moon on Monday!" Everyone who was confused now knew what McGonagall was angry about, and quickly sided with her, furious.

"Werewolves are part of the school curriculum, I had to teach them!" Schulte said angrily.

"They were part of the O.W.L. curriculum, not the N.E.W.T.!" McGonagall screamed at him, "You had no reason to give them that lesson, and don't even get me started on that absurd essay you assigned them…"

"There was _nothing _wrong with the essay!" Schulte yelled back.

"There was _everything _wrong with that essay! You shouldn't have assigned it in the first place, you made recognizing in human form one of the major points, and you drew attention to Lupin's by throwing it in the fire! The only thing you could have done to make it worse would have been to say it outright! Why can't you just accept your students for who they are?"

"He's not a boy, he's a monster!" Schulte's voice rang through the staff room. Everyone stared at him, shocked beyond words.

"So that's what you think?" McGonagall said, her voice surprisingly calm.

"Yes, it is," Schulte said adamantly.

Nobody said anything. Finally, McGonagall said, "I will not tolerate that sort of attitude toward students in my House, John. I will have the papers in your office tomorrow morning; you are leaving Hogwarts. I'm sure Albus will agree…"

"What will I agree to, Minerva?" Dumbledore said calmly, standing framed in the doorway.

McGonagall turned to face him, still quite red in the face. "Close the door, please," she said in an angry voice. Once he did so, she continued in an angry voice, "John assigned the seventh years a werewolf essay, despite, or perhaps because of, Mr Lupin."

"He did?" Dumbledore said, giving Schulte a piercing look.

"Yes, he did, and then he threw Lupin's in the fire because it was a foot and a half longer than what he asked for—"

"John," Dumbledore said calmly, "Mr Lupin has a perfectly good reason to write an extra long werewolf essay, as everybody standing in this room knows."

"Yes, then he said, and I quote, 'He's not a boy, he's a monster!' I think that's reason enough to fire him!"

Dumbledore walked over to Schulte slowly. "I'm afraid you have made a very grave decision. You will indeed be leaving Hogwarts tomorrow. I will not allow prejudice like that inside of my school, especially by the teachers."

Schulte began to laugh. Everybody stared at him. Finally, he calmed down enough to say, "The damage is already done! I've assigned the essay, the class completed it, and hopefully by Monday night everyone will know what Lupin is!"

"And if the whole school finds out on Monday night," Dumbledore said smoothly, "I will be calling in a team of Obliviators to rectify the situation. And _you _will be paying the cost." Dumbledore's blue eyes were burning with anger; there was no trademark twinkle in them. "Do you understand?"

Schulte just laughed even harder and walked out of the staffroom. "Minerva," Dumbledore said, turning to her, "I want Mr Lupin's exit to be as discreet as possible on Monday."

"I can ask his friends to bring him down," she suggested, "He can pretend to be going to Hogsmeade to Apparate home to visit his mother. He uses that excuse quite often."

Dumbledore nodded in approval. "I just wish that everyone would accept werewolves like Mr Lupin's friends did…this world would be so much better without prejudices and stereotypes."

The teachers nodded solemnly, and one by one left the room.

* * *

When the students went down to breakfast on Wednesday, they saw that Professor Schulte was not present. "As you can tell," Dumbledore said over the mutterings, "Professor John Schulte is no longer teaching here. He was sacked last night under extreme circumstances, and will no longer be your Defense teacher." Many cheers arose from the Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff tables. "Instead, you will have Professor Bumble teaching you, and I hope you will find him a much more satisfactory teacher than Professor Schulte." He sat down again, and the Hall burst into a babble of talk.

"Yes!" the Marauders said together, performing a group high-five. Lily and her friends stared at them.

"What? Isn't it obvious?" Sirius asked, "McGonagall nailed Schulte last night and got him fired!"

"You set this up," Lily said in an undertone, glaring at them.

"The only way he could have made the situation worse would have been our tell the class outright! C'mon, Lils, you wouldn't want that for your boyfriend's mate, would you?" James pleaded.

Lily laughed. Some things never changed…including a Marauder's loyalty to his friends. "I guess not."

"See, Moony, Lily does love me!" James told him, slapping his arm.

"When have I ever doubted you?" Remus, who was looking more sickly as Monday approached, said, slapping James back.

"For the past six and a half years, mate!"

They finished breakfast and headed off to their new, and hopefully improved, Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Professor Bumble was short and squat, with blonde hair. With his black robes, he reminded James vividly of a bumblebee. _Ironic_.

"Today," Bumble said, "I thought we would review, just to see what you all know. So," he Summoned a Jeopardy board, "Split up by House, and we'll start!"

The forty students were soon in groups of ten, and Bumble said, "Gryffindors first!"

James studied the board. The columns "Curses", "Counter-Curses", "Creatures", and "Miscellaneous" were across the top, while the rows "5", "10", "15", "20", and "25" were along the left side of the board. They decided on "Creatures, 25."

"What is the only useful spell against a Lethifold?" Bumble read off of the card.

"The Patronus Charm," Lily said immediately. Bumble nodded.

"That is correct," He waved his wand, and a scoreboard appeared on the black board. Under "Gryffindor" was 25 points.

"Hufflepuff next," Bumble said cheerfully.

The game continued for the rest of the class, and eventually there were no questions left. All four Houses were tied—nobody had missed a question. "Excellent," Bumble said, "Everyone take a sugar quill!"

The class crowded around his desk to take a quill. A moment later, the bell rang. "See you all on Monday!" Bumble called after them. Once they were out of the classroom, James turned to his friends. "Was that not the best Defense class ever?"

"That _was_ fun," Sarah agreed, sucking for a moment on the end of her new quill, "Much better than Schulte, at any rate."

"I like Bumble," Lily said, "he seems nice."

"It's Charms next," Remus said, "let's get going." As they headed off to Charms, Frank was some way behind them, thinking hard. Remus did not look well, though he acted like he was fine. Thinking back, Remus seemed to look ill quite often…

Frank shook his head, clearing it. Remus was sickly; he had always been. There was nothing else to it…


	25. XXV

**XXV.**

Thursday came and went without any major happenings, but Frank could have sworn he saw Sirius stuff something suspicious-looking under his four-poster. And, Remus seemed to be getting sicker by the day. When Frank suggested that he go see Madame Pomfrey, he responded, "It'll pass, just a bit of flu," then went over to his friends. Frank missed the worried look on his face.

Nothing happened on Friday either. Frank noticed that the Marauders left very early for breakfast on Saturday, and seemed to be carrying something invisible. _Of course! _Frank thought, mentally slapping himself, _James has an Invisibility Cloak!_ Shaking his head and smiling, he got ready for breakfast.

Upon arrival in the Great Hall, he saw the Marauders looking expectantly at the dungeon steps, obviously waiting for something—or someone. He grinned at them as he walked over. "What's gonna happen?"

Sirius looked offended, "You actually think we're going to tell you?"

Frank rolled his eyes. "I guess not."

James nodded. "You're learning. Of course, it only took you six and a half years…"

Sirius rolled his eyes and continued watching the dungeon steps. By this time, most of the school was already assembled. "Maybe he overslept," Peter said worriedly.

"Don't be stupid, Wormtail," Sirius admonished him, "He'll come up eventually."

Sure enough, after another minute, Snape appeared in the doorway. "Excellent," James said, "Moony, unfreeze the pixies."

Remus muttered the counter-curse, and immediately the electric blue pixies, which were originally frozen in a corner of the Great Hall, sped toward Snape, showering him with red and gold confetti, and, oddly enough, licorice snaps. Their use quickly became apparent, as they soon began snapping at every part of Snape that they could reach. Then, the pixies flew up into the air and dive-bombed Snape, laughing. They picked him up, carried him to the Slytherin table, and dropped him into the eggs, pouring maple syrup all over him. While the school roared with laughter, the pixies zoomed out of the Great Hall.

Snape picked himself up out of the eggs with as much dignity as he could muster, shot a death glare in the general direction of the Gryffindor table, found an empty seat at his own, and sat down.

That day was chaotic, as there were a dozen Cornish pixies set loose around the school. The students found it amusing, but the teachers did not. It took them the better part of the day to find all of them and successfully re-cage them. Finally, by dinnertime, they were finished.

While the Marauders sat at dinner, congratulating themselves on their success, McGonagall made her way down the table toward them. They were unaware of her until Lily nudged James hard in the ribs. Then he looked up guiltily into the very angry face of his Transfiguration professor.

"You four have detention Mon…" she checked herself, "…next Friday night, polishing the trophies at six o'clock, without magic."

"Right," James said, and turned back to his friends. McGonagall rolled her eyes, but left for the staff table.

Frank, who was sitting a few seats down from the Marauders, stared at McGonagall's retreating back. He had heard what she told them, and was wondering what was on Monday night so that they could not serve detention. He made a mental note to see where the Marauders were on Monday…

* * *

The weekend passed uneventfully, and Remus was still as pale and sick looking as ever. On Monday, he looked as if one good hex could finish him off. In Defense after lunch, he looked even sicker, and Frank was surprised that he did not ask Bumble to leave for the Hospital Wing.

Bumble was passing something out. When he handed one to Frank, he saw that it was his werewolf essay. Scowling, he saw that Schulte had given him a P; however, in a different handwriting he vaguely recognized as Bumble's, there was a large E, and a comment that read, "You seem to grasp the concept of werewolves fairly well. Well written essay!" There were a few marks on his essay, but all in all he was very pleased with his work.

Bumble paused as he reached the Marauders. "Mr Lupin, I don't seem to have an essay from you…"

"Schulte threw it in the fire," Remus said.

"Ah, yes, Minerva told me about that," Bumble said, "I will just not give you a grade at all, then, if you don't mind…"

"Actually, sir, he had me redo it, and I was wondering if you could grade it. Just to see if I get the concept of lycanthropy, I mean." Remus said, pulling out his essay.

Bumble stared at him, apparently thinking. "Very well, I will give it back to you when I finish grading it."

"Thank you, Professor."

That night, the Marauders were only at dinner for a few minutes; Remus looked like he was going to faint at any second. When the four of them stood up, Lily and her friends giving them sympathetic good-byes, Frank said, "Where are you guys going?"

"Remus' mother is ill, so he's going to visit him. He isn't feeling very well either, so we're going with him," Sirius explained, gesturing sadly at Remus.

Frank nodded sympathetically. "Hope you both feel better."

Remus nodded, looking very sick. The four of them quickly left into the Entrance Hall.

Frank finished dinner ten minutes later, and walked up to the Gryffindor common room, then to his dormitory. He then got to work on his Herbology essay; opening the window and savoring the silence that meant the Marauders were not present.

He then remembered that McGonagall had changed their detention. Had Remus' trip home been planned?

He shook his head, clearing it, and began to work on his essay. He noted absently as the grounds became dark and the moon began to rise an hour later, that it was the night of the full moon.

A while later, a very distinct howl came up through his window, making Frank blot his essay in surprise. He looked outside, and saw something very odd—three very large figures disappearing into the Forest. Thinking that they were just centaurs—though he didn't know where the howl had come from—he returned to his essay.

He worked for a while longer, but was once again sidetracked as he heard more howls. Slamming his Herbology book shut, he tried to think of who or what would be howling. His eyes found the full moon again, and his breath caught in his throat. _A werewolf…_

He was halfway out of his chair to speak to McGonagall about it—werewolves definitely did not belong at Hogwarts!—when he decided against it. If the werewolf was a student, they wouldn't want anyone to know. And he supposed that as long as nobody was attacked…

Frank froze again, rethinking that same thought. _If the werewolf was a student…_

No. Way.

No. _Bloody._ Way.


	26. XXVI

**XXVI.**

The next morning, James, Sirius, and Peter could be found clustered around a curtained bed in the Hospital Wing. "You ok, Moony?" Sirius asked him.

"All right," Remus said. Sure, he was physically fairly well off—he only had a few bites and scratches here and there—but he was not looking forward to facing the rest of the school. Then he would find out how stupid his seventh year class really was…

"Don't worry about it," James said, reading his expression correctly. "I'm sure Dumbledore would be happy to perform a few Memory Charms if need be…"

Remus nodded, not very convinced. "I'm just really worried…our class isn't stupid…"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "C'mon, stop thinking about that! Just focus on something else!"

He nodded again, still not convinced. "Really, Remus, don't worry about it!" James said, beginning to get impatient.

"Besides, even if everyone else hates you, at least you know we won't," Sirius said, trying to be consoling. James and Peter glared at him.

"Not helping, Sirius," James said, and Remus drifted back off to sleep.

* * *

Remus walked into the boys' dormitory on Wednesday night, still looking rather ill. "Welcome back!" Frank said happily, and returned to his homework. The Marauders descended to the common room.

"Anybody know?" Remus asked in an undertone.

"Nobody's said anything, they've just asked where you were," James said, "we told them all the same story."

"That's good," Remus said, breathing a sigh of relief. "But they might be waiting to confront just me…"

"Stop being such a pessimist," Sirius scolded him, "Nobody would do that!"

* * *

At that very moment, Frank was deciding exactly how to confront Remus the next day. He had decided straight off that James, Sirius, and Peter could not be with him. They would probably hex him into next week before he could get his whole story out…

After much debating, he decided to ask to meet him after History. He would pass him a note in class, and then tell him after class. Yes, that would work…

He tried to return his thoughts to his nearly completed essay, but was unable to. He still was undecided on his attitude towards werewolves, and he had to decide that before he confronted Remus…

He finally decided, after a half-hour of debating, that Remus had never done anything to him, so he had no reason to hate him. Sure, he had hated werewolves before, but he had never personally known one. He would accept Remus for what he was, and never let his lycanthropy get in the way of their friendship!

* * *

Remus observed his classmates closely the next day, but they all acted normally—welcoming him back and inquiring of his and his mother's health. "Merlin, how stupid can our class be?" he asked his friends in an undertone in Herbology that morning.

"You're not complaining!" Sirius said in mock surprise.

"Of course I'm not, you know that," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "But, I mean, it's so obvious!"

James shrugged. "Maybe they _are _stupid."

"Less talk, you four, and more work!" Professor Sprout barked at them. They bent over their plant, but as soon as she turned her back, they resumed their conversation.

"I bet you ten Galleons," Remus said seriously, "that somebody's going to figure it out within the week."

"You're on," James, Sirius, and Peter said together. Remus smirked.

"I'll be thirty Galleons richer by Friday."

* * *

In History that afternoon, Frank was feeling very nervous about what he was going to do. It was halfway through the class before he finally finished the note. For such a short letter, it took him an astonishingly long time to write.

"_Meet me in the library after class, without James, Sirius and Peter._

_Frank"_

He folded it carefully, wrote "Remus" on the front, and levitated it across the room. Luckily, James, Sirius, and Peter were asleep, and Remus was awake and taking notes.

He did not notice the piece of parchment flying toward him until it landed on top of his notes. Looking at it curiously, he opened it up and read it quickly. All the color drained from his face, he stuffed the note in his pocked, and continued taking notes. Frank, his job done, did likewise.

After History was over, Frank quickly walked up to the library. On his way out of the classroom, he heard Remus telling his friends that he had to check a book out of the library, and would be down to dinner later.

Frank arrived at the library a minute before Remus did, which gave him time to organize his thoughts. He had just decided how to approach the subject when Remus walked in, deathly pale.

"Remus…" Frank started, but Remus stopped him.

"Don't waste your breath, I know what you're going to say," Remus said in a rather harsh voice. "I'll be packed tonight, and I'll leave tomorrow. Nobody will miss me anyways…" He collapsed into a chair, his head in his hands. "All I ever wanted was to go to Hogwarts…"

Frank was stunned at Remus' reaction. He had expected him to deny it, or yell at him. But he decided that this was much, much worse.

"Remus…" Frank began again, but he wasn't listening.

"I was so excited when I got my letter, I thought I could be like a normal kid. I expected too much…"

Frank was completely at a loss. He had never seen Remus like this—completely broken down. "Remus, listen…" but he continued on.

"I thought it was finished in second year, when James, Sirius, and Peter found out," Remus said, still talking into his hands, "But they didn't care, they accepted me for who I was. That was probably the happiest day of my life; I had real friends that cared about _me, _as _Remus!_"

Frank stared. His friends had known since second year?

"I knew I couldn't keep it a secret forever…I knew somebody would find out eventually. I just hoped they would accept me as well. Lily and her friends did, but I know nobody else is going to." He stood up suddenly. "I'll go pack." And he raced out of the library at top speed. Frank stared after him for a few moments before running after him.

By the time he entered the common room, he heard the faint sound of a door slamming. The few Gryffindors in the common room were staring at the boys' staircase, open-mouthed. Without answering any questions, he dashed up the dormitory stairs. He found Remus throwing his possessions haphazardly into his trunk, tears falling thick and fast down his cheeks.

"Remus!" Frank said loudly. He did not look up.

"What, come to humiliate me?"

"No, I haven't! Listen…"

"Come to tell me that tomorrow you're going to tell everybody at breakfast what I am? Just for a laugh?" Remus said bitterly, looking up. "You can't kill me any more than you already have, Frank, don't bother to try."

Frank crossed the dorm in seconds and grabbed Remus' arm, preventing him from packing. "Remus, listen to me," he said firmly, but once again, he was interrupted.

"Look, Frank, I'll be gone tomorrow, just like you want me to be. You can tell the school if you want, I really don't care about anything anymore."

"Why would I do that?" Frank said, finally completing a sentence. Remus looked taken aback slightly, but not enough to reply angrily,

"Because you hate me, because of what I am! Because of something I hate just as much as Voldemort himself!"

"Did I ever say that I hate you?"

"You do," Remus said, not hesitating a bit, "You said, in fifth year, that you hate werewolves! Why would your opinion change now?" He wrenched his arm out of Frank's grip. "Thank you for ruining my life. Now, I need to see Professor Dumbledore." He moved towards the door, but Frank got there first and blocked him.

"I won't let you," he said firmly. Remus looked angry.

"Let me through; I'm sure you don't want to be in the same room as me for too long!"

"Remus Lupin, listen to me!" Frank all but yelled. Remus, surprised, finally fell silent. "In fifth year, my view was biased. The only werewolf I knew by name was Fenrir Greyback—" Remus growled, "—but that's not really much to go by, is it? When I figured it out on Monday night, I realized that all werewolves couldn't be bad; you've never been anything but kind to me. I wouldn't thank you for that by shunning and publicly humiliating you, would I?"

Before Remus could reply, footsteps could be heard coming up the steps. The two moved away from the door quickly.

The door opened, and James, Sirius, and Peter walked in. Their eyes took in Remus' tear-stained face and his half-filled trunk. As one, James and Sirius pulled out their wands and pointed them at Frank.

"Let me explain…" Frank began, but once again he was cut off.

"What is there to explain?" James snarled, "You found Remus out!"

"Listen to me!" Frank roared. The Marauders all fell silent, though they were still glaring at him. James and Sirius still had their wands raised. "I hated werewolves _before _Monday night, because I had only heard of the infamous ones. I do _not _hate Remus! I don't care if he transforms once a month; that doesn't change who he is! I honestly don't care if the rest of the school would hate him, I'd stick up for him right alongside you guys!"

James and Sirius lowered their wands ever so slightly, Peter's mouth was hanging open, and Remus looked as if his birthday had come early.

"I've just got some questions for you," Frank said.

"If we're given the right to remain silent, and if we get to ask questions in return," Sirius said, stowing his wand back into his pocket.

"Fine."

They all sat down on their beds, and Frank asked his first question. "How long has it been since you were bitten?"

Remus thought for a moment. "Twelve years in October," he said finally.

Frank gaped at him. "You were…"

"Six years old."

Frank was very surprised. For nearly two-thirds of his life, Remus had been forced to endure horrifically painful transformations once a month!

"Do you know who…" Frank didn't get a chance to finish his question.

"Greyback," Remus spat, "My father apparently offended him in some way, so he went after me in retaliation."

"That's horrible!" Frank said angrily.

"That's what Greyback does—attack children," Remus continued, disgusted.

Frank felt his stomach drop a few inches. Greyback was worse than all the articles said, according to the tone of Remus' voice.

"Is it really as painful as the books say?" Frank asked after a short pause.

Remus smiled wryly. "You have no idea."

"Where do you go to transform?"

"The Shrieking Shack."

Frank was stunned—"So it's not really haunted?"

"Not unless you call a werewolf a spirit," he laughed humorlessly.

"I want to ask you a question now," James said. Frank nodded, and he continued, "Did you figure it out because of Schulte's essay? Because if you did, I believe a Howler is appropriate…"

Frank nodded. "That, and other things."

"Such as?"

"I overheard McGonagall and Schulte arguing, and Remus' name came up," Frank said, "while you all were at St. Mungo's."

"I still think a Howler is in order," James said, "What do you guys think?"

They nodded their agreement.

"I've got another question," Frank said, "Where were you three on Monday night?" He gestured at James, Sirius, and Peter.

"That," Sirius said, "is something we cannot tell you." And no matter how much he pestered them, Frank could not get more of an answer than that. Finally, giving up, he said, "So how many people know?"

"All of us, obviously," Remus said, gesturing around at the five of them, "Lily and her two friends, and…Snape."

Frank stared, sure that he had heard wrong. "Severus Snape? How…"

"Sirius, here," Remus shot him a death glare, "decided that it would be funny to tell Snape how to get into the Whomping Willow—"

"So that's how you get to the Shack? Through the Willow?" Frank asked in amazement.

"Yes, there's a tunnel that leads to the Shack. As I was saying, Sirius told Snape how to get into the Willow, so he followed the tunnel to the Shack. I would have killed him if James had not pulled him out in time."

Frank's brow furrowed. "James, I thought you hate Snape!"

"Of course I hate Snape," James said indignantly, "I was trying to save both Sirius' and Remus' necks by saving his life. Otherwise, they both would have been expelled."

"I still got two hundred points off and detentions every night for the rest of the year," Sirius said.

"Anything else?" Remus asked.

"Nope," Frank said, out of questions. "Just…why won't you tell me where you three go?"

"We can't," James said simply, "And if we told you, you'd demand an explanation, which we can't give you."

Frank was confused. "But why can't you…"

"We just can't," Sirius said, "Maybe we'll tell you when we're out of Hogwarts, but not now."

Frank nodded, satisfied, they went down into the common room, and then separated; the Marauders to Lily, and Frank to Anthony.

"What did he want?" Lily asked as they sat down. "Remus, are you all right?"

"Never been better," he said cheerfully.

"So why do you have tearstains…"

"Minor misunderstanding," he replied lightly.

"So if it was a 'minor misunderstanding', why is everybody talking about how you ran through the common room like a bat out of Hell about half an hour ago, ran up the steps, and slammed the door?" Sarah asked.

"Same answer," He walked up the dorm steps again, and came down a minute later with a tearstain-free face. He then stood up on one of the tables, and everyone was soon quiet, wondering what he was about to say.

"Just to stop the rumors before they spread through the entire school, there is nothing wrong, so you can stop guessing what it is. I misunderstood something, and Frank sorted it out. Do you hear me? _Nothing. Is. Wrong._" He glared at the House until they nodded. "Thank you."

He got down again and went back to his friends. "You still haven't answered my first question, Remus," Lily pressed.

"Take a guess," he said, pulling out his History notes.

Lily gasped. "He didn't…he doesn't…"

"He doesn't care," James said airily, "just like none of us do."

Lily sighed in relief. "That's good. Kelsi and Lea don't suspect anything, but that's to be expected. And if nobody's said anything…"

Remus' eyes lit up. "You owe me ten galleons. Each. Pay up."

Lily looked totally bewildered. "What?"

"Not you," he said, "I bet ten galleons that somebody would find out, they took the bet. Pay up," he repeated to the other Marauders, extending his hand expectantly. Sighing, they obliged. Counting the money carefully, he put it into his pocket.

"Moooooony," Sirius said in a singsong voice after a minute.

"No, you can't borrow my notes, Sirius," Remus said, pulling them away from him. "You should have stayed awake during class."

"Liiiiiiiiiily," Sirius said, turning to her, using the same tone, but—

"No, Sirius!" she said, slapping his hand away forcefully. "Just because I'm your friend's girlfriend doesn't mean you can cheat!"

"Which reminds me," Sarah said suddenly, "We missed the last Hogsmeade trip, and the next one's on Valentine's Day. Are you all for it?"

"Think a minute," James said sarcastically, "Would I ever pass up a date with Lily or a Zonko's visit?"

Lily laughed. "I guess not."

* * *

"What was that about?" Anthony asked Frank as he sat down.

Frank shook his head. "Can't say."

Anthony narrowed his eyes. "Why not?"

"Because it's not my place to say." Frank said, pulling out his history notes and starting on his essay.

"What was wrong with Remus then?" Anthony asked after a minute of silence. Just then, Remus got onto a table and said,

"Just to stop the rumors before they spread through the entire school, there is nothing wrong, so you can stop guessing what it is. I misunderstood something, and Frank sorted it out. Do you hear me? _Nothing. Is. Wrong._" He glared at the House until they nodded affirmatively. "Thank you."

"_What _did you sort out?" Anthony pressed his friend.

"The misunderstanding," Frank answered, knowing what was coming.

"But what was the misunderstanding?" Anthony asked impatiently.

"I told you—I can't tell you."

"Would Remus tell me if I asked him?"

"Probably not," Frank said, leafing through his notes.

Anthony stood up and walked across the common room to where the Marauders were sitting. "Remus?" he said loudly over their conversation.

"Yeah?" he said, looking up.

"Can you tell me what your misunderstanding was about?"

All activity around the large table ceased, and seven pairs of eyes looked up at him in disbelief. "Nope, can't. Sorry."

"Why not?" Anthony pressed.

"Because…" he faltered for a split second, "…you really don't want to know."

"Of course I do!"

"Let me rephrase that. If I told you, you'd wish you didn't know. Trust me," Remus assured him.

Anthony opened his mouth to argue, but Sarah said, "Look, this is one thing Remus is never going to spill…"

"But you lot obviously know about it!"

"Yes, because he trusted us enough with it," Lily said, getting slightly impatient.

"Why don't you trust me?" Anthony said, hurt. "And why does Frank know?"

"Because you're not a Marauder. And Frank figured it out by himself; if you really want to know, good luck finding out as well," James said.

Anthony nodded curtly and walked back to Frank. "Any luck?" he asked, without looking up.

"No," Anthony said, flopping down into a chair, "But they welcomed me to try and find out on my own…"

"Good luck with that," Frank said, finally looking up. "Took me six and a half years to get it." He stood up. "I'm gonna work in the dorm, you coming?"

"Yeah, go ahead, I'll be up in a minute."

Frank nodded, packed his things into his bag, and said, "I'll be in yours."

"Right," Anthony said distractedly. He sat in the chair for a long minute, thinking. What did Remus mean when he said that he didn't want to know what their misunderstanding was about? Of course he wanted to know!

Shaking his head, he stood up and was about to leave when he noticed a roll of parchment under the table. Picking it up, he realized that it was Frank's werewolf essay. He grinned when he saw that Bumble had given him an "E" in place of Schulte's "P", and skimmed through it on his way up the stairs.

"Great essay," he informed Frank, throwing it at him as he walked into his own dorm.

"Thanks," said Frank, losing a tiny bit of color. Anthony did not notice. "Did I leave it downstairs?"

"Yeah."

They worked in silence for a while. "Still don't get why nobody'll tell me," Anthony complained, "I really want to know."

"It's not my secret to tell," Frank said, "and Remus will tell you when he trusts you enough."

"That's what he said," Anthony said, throwing down his quill, "You know I hate being left in the dark!"

"So apparently, Remus doesn't trust you enough to tell you," Frank said logically, "He didn't tell his best friends, even, they figured it out on their own in second year…"

"Then I'm sure he'll never tell me," Anthony said glumly.

"He'll fess up if you figure it out, don't worry," Frank assured him, "He won't try and deny it if you present your proof."

Anthony nodded, slightly happier, and they resumed working on their homework.


	27. XXVII

**XXVII.**

The next two days passed without incident, and soon it was February fourteenth—Valentine's Day, and more importantly, the day of Lily and James' second date.

When Lily came down the girls' staircase, James thought she looked stunning.

"You look gorgeous," he told her breathlessly once they had climbed out of the portrait hole on their way to breakfast.

Lily gave him an odd look. "I didn't do anything differently than I normally do…"

"You're still beautiful," James said, and kissed her quickly.

Sirius covered his face in horror. "PDA! PDA!" he yelled. They all laughed.

"You're just jealous that I've got a girlfriend," James said, grinning. Sirius pouted all the way down to the Great Hall.

"Do we have a Valentines Day prank planned?" Remus asked his friends in an undertone over their eggs.

"Of course!" Sirius said indignantly. "We never let a holiday pass without a prank!"

"So why haven't I heard about it?" Remus asked, pretending to be offended.

"Well, were discussing it on Tuesday during your…absence," James said, "and meant to tell you on Thursday, but then your _misunderstanding _came up, and this weekend we forgot. Ok? So we'll tell you now…"

* * *

Meanwhile, the girls were having their own conversation. "Where should we make them go?" Laurie asked, grinning evilly. "Madame Puddifoot's would give them aneurisms, the Three Broomsticks is always packed…"

"We could bring them to the Room of Requirement, they've been dying to see that," Sarah suggested, "Then we can go out to Hogsmeade for shopping."

Lily and Laurie grinned. "That's perfect!"

So while the Marauders planned their prank, the girls planned out their date with the boys.

Eventually, they all finished, and stood up. "You four are coming with us," Lily said.

"Only we look something up," Remus said, smirking, "Shouldn't take too long."

"Fine, meet us in the common room."

So they separated—the girls to Gryffindor Tower, and the boys to plan their prank, whatever that may have been.

* * *

The girls, sitting in the common room, were discussing the Room. "We shouldn't all think the same thing, it'll be better that way," Sarah said decisively.

"That'll be best," Lily agreed. "Just to confuse them more." They laughed.

Ten minutes later, the four Marauders walked into Gryffindor Tower. "Ready to go?"

"Yep, just needed to look something up in the library," James replied.

Lily gasped in mock surprise. "Isn't that against some sort of Marauder code of law or something? Going to the library?"

"Not when it's for voluntary research."

Lily nodded, laughing. "Let's get going then. You four will have to wear blindfolds…"

"I'm not walking into Hogsmeade with a blindfold on!" Sirius said indignantly.

"Wear it, or I'll hex you," Lily said warningly. They grudgingly put them on, and the girls led them out of the common room. Many people snickered as they walked by, but shut up when the girls glared at them.

"Why aren't we going down any stairs?" asked the ever-observant Remus.

"You'll see," Sarah said mischievously. "Just a little further now…"

They walked for another minute, and were then standing in front of the blank stretch of wall concealing the Room.

"If you move, I'm dumping you," Lily warned. They nodded quickly, and Lily, Sarah, and Laurie began pacing in front of the wall.

"_I need a perfect place for a date…a place to seat seven friends wanting a great time…"_

"_I need a place perfect for four pranksters and three bookworms to have a nice date…it needs to look like a regular restaurant in Hogsmeade…"_

"_I need a nice restaurant…not too girly but not too masculine…perfect for a date and five tag-alongs, all of whom are best friends…"_

The boys, meanwhile, were wondering what was going on. "We're not outside," Remus said confidently. "We're still standing on flooring, there's no voices anywhere, and no wind whatsoever."

James nodded, though nobody could tell. "We must still be in the castle somewhere."

The girls grabbed their hands and pulled them inside a door, closing it behind them. They steered them into the room, and finally pulled off their blindfolds. The Marauders' eyes took a moment to adjust to the bright light, but when they could finally see, they gasped.

The room was _perfect_. Seven squashy armchairs were gathered around a large circular table in the center of the room. There were large picture windows around the walls, showing Hogsmeade from a distance, as if they were a ways away from the village.

The ceiling had miniature candelabras hanging from it, supplying some extra light to the already well-lit room. Along one wall were some more chairs and loveseats, and on another was a buffet full of enough food to feed the entire Gryffindor House. On the other wall was a glass-fronted cabinet, which, on close inspection, contained dozens of games and books.

As the boys stared in amazement around the room, the girls beamed-their expressions were priceless. "Where are we?" Remus asked breathlessly. "We can't be in Hogwarts, that's Hogsmeade outside!"

"I've never seen this place before," Sirius said, looking around. "And why are we the only ones here?"

The girls just smiled mysteriously. "You'll just have to wait and see."

They walked over to the cabinet. "What do you want to play?"

They whiled away the morning playing the various games, until Peter announced, "I'm hungry!"

"So let's eat some lunch!" Lily said cheerfully. "Jamsie-boy, lead the way!"

James glared at her before walking over to the table and filling up his plate. The other six followed suit, and they were soon sitting in the very comfortable armchairs.

"Thith ith…mmmmm…rea'y goo!" Sirius said through a mouthful of food. Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Sirius Black, you're going to have to learn some manners if you want to be my boyfriend!"

Sirius swallowed his food before continuing. "You still haven't told us where we are," he informed the girls.

"Oh, we've told you about it," Lily said vaguely, "a while back."

"Are you sure you didn't tell only James?" Remus asked.

"Oh, I'm sure," Lily said, smiling serenely. "It was a bit before that."

The Marauders thought for a moment. Then Remus' eyes became very wide. "You didn't…we aren't…" he choked on his Butterbeer.

"Now Remmie, don't tell them," Sarah said cheerfully, "I want to see how long it takes."

After another minute, "C'mon, give us a clue? Please? Can you tell us what was happening when you told us about it?"

The girls considered the question. "All right," Laurie said, relenting. "We were in Hogsmeade. That should narrow it down quite a bit."

"So it was during our date," James muttered. "We talked a lot during our date, what place did you…" he froze. "Oh!" he and Sirius said at the same time. "We aren't…" Sirius said, staring at them. They grinned.

"Let's wait for Peter before we say anything," Lily said, looking at the small blonde boy. He seemed to be sweating under the pressure.

"C'mon, Wormtail, what was the place they told us about on our date?" Remus asked patiently, "The one place that isn't on the Map?"

Peter's eyes became very wide. "We're in the…"

"Room of Requirement?" the Marauders asked in unison. They grinned.

"Yep," Lily said, "What do you think?"

"Brilliant!" they said together.

"So are you going to add it to the Map?"

"Of course!" James said indignantly. "Tomorrow at the latest!"

They grinned and returned to their lunch. "Can we go to Zonko's now?" Sirius whined at around one.

"Sure," Lily said, "You all know where this is, for the Map?"

"Across from that nutcase getting beat up by the trolls," Remus said confidently.

Lily nodded. "Let's get going."

Once inside Hogsmeade, the Marauders went straight to Zonko's. "Haven't been here in two months!" James said joyfully. "Oi! Gabien!" he called across the shop, "Anything new?"

The girls followed them inside, and found a burly man in his mid-twenties ruffling James' hair. "Missed you last month," the man said sorrowfully, "But at least you're back now, and that's what matters! Let me show you some new extra-smelly dungbombs we just got in…"

Smiling like a maniac, James winked at Sirius and followed him into the shop.

"That was Gabien Prewett, Arthur Weasley's brother-in-law. He's great chums with James…" they followed James and Gabien into the packed shop.

While the Marauders exclaimed over the new Dungbombs, the girls wandered through the rest of the shop. "Hey, Lily, come over here!" Sarah called over to her. She ran over, and Sarah and Laurie showed her a book entitled 1001 Pranks for the Mindless and Bored Wizard by Lucas Walow. The copyright was 1978; it was very new. "Do you know when Sirius' birthday is?"

"Sometime in May, I think…Remus!" she called over. When he arrived, she asked, "When is Sirius' birthday?"

"May fourteenth…why?" he asked.

"Thinking about what to get him…he doesn't have this book, does he?" Sarah held up the prank book. Remus examined it closely.

"I don't think so," he said thoughtfully. "He might have it by then, though."

"Don't let him get it," Lily said, "It'll be our gift to him."

Remus nodded. "I'll be sure he doesn't."

The girls nodded and walked up to the cashier to pay. Handing over the two galleons and five sickles, Laurie was just stuffing the book into a bag when the Marauders came around a shelf, carrying an armful of dungbombs each. Three of them had a knowing glint in their eyes, but one just looked confused.

"Since when do you lot buy anything from Zonko's?" Sirius asked, staring at them.

"Since about four years ago," Lily said innocently, "We're just a bit more subtle."

Sirius mouthed wordlessly at them until James laughed and steered him to the cashier.

They returned to Hogwarts at around five o'clock. "We have some business to attend to," James said, "so we'll be up in the common room later."

"Right."

Three quarters of an hour later, the Marauders returned, looking pleased. "All set to go," Sirius said cheerfully. Seeing Sarah's mouth open to form a question, he added, "You'll just have to wait and see, won't you?"

Signing resignedly, she nodded and turned back to her essay.

* * *

The Great Hall looked no different than usual, except that there was more chocolate on the tables. However, halfway through dinner, something very strange happened.

All of the Slytherins began sliding towards the nearly empty end of the table where Snape was seated. They tried to hold onto the table, but their fate was inevitable—soon all of the Slytherins were in a great big ball, with Snape at the center. While the rest of the Hall laughed their heads off, they began rising off the floor. Soon they were bouncing off of the enchanted ceiling, screaming like there was no tomorrow.

The teachers immediately sprang up and attempted to get them down, but none of their spells would work. "Potter!" McGonagall yelled across the guffawing Great Hall. "Get them down this instant!"

"What makes you think I did it?" James asked in a would-be-innocent voice.

"Because this is something you would do! Now _get them down_!"

"They have to say the password," James said calmly, as if they were discussing this over afternoon tea.

"And what would that be?" she asked in a dangerous voice.

"'Slytherins are idiots, and Gryffindors deserve to win the House Cup!'"

McGonagall scoffed. "They'll never say that!"

"They'll have to, otherwise they'll get very well acquainted with that ceiling up there…"

McGonagall sighed resignedly, and yelled up to the Slytherins, "To get down, you have to say 'Slytherins are idiots and Gryffindors deserve to win the House Cup!'"

They stopped screaming to stare down at her. "You're kidding, right?"

McGonagall shook her head. "It's the only way…"

Shooting death glares at the Marauders, who smiled serenely back at them, the Slytherins yelled the password.

With an almighty "whoosh", the Slytherins all fell towards the hard stone floor, only to stop inches from it and land gently.

"Potter! Black! Lupin! Pettigrew! My office _now_!" McGonagall yelled. Smiling and waving to the rest of the Hall, they obliged.

"Why did you do that?" McGonagall screamed at them. "They could all have been killed!"

"We don't c—" Sirius began, but James quickly interrupted him.

"We figured that since nobody would be attracted to Snivellus, we decided to make them attract to him!" he explained cheerfully to the irate McGonagall.

"There may be logic behind it, but that is no reason to levitate the entire Slytherin house up to the ceiling! What would have happened if we were outside?"

"But we were inside, weren't we, Minnie?" Sirius said cheekily

"McGonagall ignored him. "15 points each from Gryffindor, and a week's worth of detention!"

They hung their heads in mock shame, which worked—

In first year, that is.

"Don't act like you're sorry," McGonagall snapped at them. "Your detentions start tomorrow; meet Filch at six-thirty on the edge of the Forbidden Forest."

They nodded and cheerfully left the office, heading back to the common room.

* * *

That night at seven-thirty, James pulled Lily out of the portrait hole, saying that they had Head rounds to do.

"As if," Sarah scoffed, "More likely they're off to some broom closet to snog their brains out!"

"We can always check that," Sirius said, grinning evilly. Pulling out the Map, he tapped it with his wand and said the password. Searching the Map for a minute, Laurie suddenly burst out laughing.

"This really has the works!"

She pointed to a broom closet on the sixth floor. Instead of having two dots as was usual, there was a single heart labeled "LilyEvansJamesPotter" with a sub-title of "SNOGGERS".

Sirius nodded, grinning evilly. "They are _so _dead…"

They came into the common room again, looking rather ruffled. "Have a nice round, Prongsie?" Remus asked in a would-be-serious voice.

James blushed and said, "It went fine."

"I really don't see how you could do rounds while you're stuck in a broom closet," Sarah said seriously. Lily turned a shade of red to match her hair.

"Don't know…what…you're talking…about…" James spluttered. Sirius laughed.

"James Potter, speechless!"

"The Map tells all, you guys," Laurie grinned.

James turned even redder. "Fine, maybe you're right, but…"

"Come off it, of course we're right! We set that up, it was _your _idea!" Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"Ok, fine, but that's not the point! It's Valentine's Day, what did you expect us to do?"

"We aren't saying it's wrong, we're just making fun of you about it."


	28. XXVIII

**XXVIII.**

"I'm hungry," Peter announced the next night.

"Wormtail," Sirius said exasperatedly, "We just got back from dinner!"

"But I'm hungry! Can't I get the Map and go down to the kitchens?"

"Fine, but hurry back; we're going to add the Room once you get back," Peter nodded and left the common room, carrying the Map.

"So, James," Lily said after a bit, "When are you going to start up Quidditch again?"

James looked up, startled. "I forgot about that!"

Sirius mock-gasped. "James Potter, forget about Quidditch?"

"Well, I've had a lot of time to forget about it, haven't I?" He shut up.

"I'll probably start it up again next week," James continued, "I'll post it on the message board. I'm going to try and get at least four practices a week in…"

While the others laughed at James' enthusiasm, Lily suddenly looked worried. "Where do you think Peter is?"

"Probably pigging out in the kitchens," James said cheerfully, "He's been gone longer than this before, don't worry about it."

But after another half hour, the Marauders were beginning to get worried. "Lily, please go out and look for him," Sirius pleaded.

"Why does it have to be me?"

"Because you're Head Girl!"

"James is Head Boy!"

"He's got a record a mile long, and yours is clean! C'mon, Lil's, please?"

"No need, you guys," Sarah said abruptly. She pointed to the portrait hole, where a white-faced Peter Pettigrew was climbing in. Lily's first impression was that he was avoiding them; when Sirius hailed him, he gave a loud squeak and attempted to make a run for the boys' staircase.

James caught up with him and grabbed him by the arm. "Peter, what took you so long?" He gave another squeak and didn't answer. "Are you…hey!" James said abruptly, "Where's the Map?" Peter squeaked very loudly and still didn't answer.

James' face turned from slightly pink to green-tinged, then to the grayish color of porridge, and then red to rival Lily's hair—all in the span of about three seconds. "Pettigrew, you didn't…" he growled. Peter's eyes darted back and forth, looking for an escape.

"What's wrong, James?" Sirius said, walking over.

"Pettigrew…Map…gone…" James spluttered. Sirius needed no more information.

Standing on a table, he yelled for the House to hear, "Marauder conference, _now_! Everybody else to your dorms! Leave! _Now!" _the murderous look on his face made the common room empty within a minute, Lily and Frank standing guard inside the dormitory doors.

After casting a "_Muffliato" _at both doors, the Marauders glared murderously at Peter. "Out with it," Sirius growled. Peter whimpered.

* * *

"What are they so miffed about, do you think?" Sarah asked Lily in an undertone.

"Dunno, but it must have something to do with Peter, because they were fine before he came back in…"

"It's got to be something really bad, they've only called a Marauder conference twice before…"

"Yeah, and Sirius looked murderous!" Lily said, "I don't know what could have happened!"

A loud buzzing suddenly filled the alcove. Lily chuckled. "That'll be the _Muffliato _spell to stop us from eavesdropping…"

Sarah winced. "I don't think I've ever heard anybody yell that loud…"

"I'm going to see if I can see anything through the keyhole," Laurie muttered. Lily and Sarah moved aside, and she squatted down in front of the door.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, until she finally pulled away. "Three of them are yelling at the other, it looks like they've got him cornered. I couldn't see anything else."

Lily sighed. "We'll just have to wait and see if they'll tell us…"

* * *

James advanced on Peter, furious. How could he have lost the Map? The whole purpose of it was to _not _get caught!

"W-w-well," Peter stuttered, "I w-w-was coming b-b-back from the kitchen a-a-and I wasn't really w-w-watching where I was going, and I b-b-bumped into Mrs. Norris…"

"Why weren't you watching the Map?" Sirius accused him.

"Because I had a l-l-lot of food and s-so I p-put it in my p-p-pocket…"

"Why were you bringing an armload of food up to the common room?" Remus asked, his eyes blazing.

"So w-we could eat it l-later…"

"We can go down to the kitchens whenever we damn well please, Pettigrew!" James screamed at him. Peter winced at the use of his surname. "Was the Map at least cleared before Filch found you?"

"Y-yes…"

"So what did he do? Confiscate the food and make you turn out your pockets?"

"Y-yes, and he asked m-me what it was, and I told him it was a spare piece of p-p-parchment, but he didn't b-believe me. Then he g-g-grabbed my wand and tapped the Map with it…"

Sirius' eyes widened, then narrowed. "And it insulted him?"

"Well, y-y-yes, and he recognized our nicknames, so—"

Remus swore. "So he confiscated it, then what?"

"He accused m-m-me of using D-dark magic on the parchment…"

The other three simultaneously snorted. "Dark magic?" Sirius scoffed.

"Yes, then he s-s-stuffed it in some d-d-drawer in those filing cabinets he's got…"

James saw a sudden ray of hope. "So he didn't burn it or anything?"

"No…"

"Excellent, so we can get it back!" Sirius said happily. Remus didn't share this optimistic view.

"Filch had Dumbledore charm his office so that nobody but him—or somebody on his orders—could get in."

Sirius and James were completely deflated. "So the Map is gone for good?"

"'Fraid so," Remus said wearily, "But maybe if our kids come here and get into his office, maybe they can get it back…"

"But we can't use it, and…" James flared up again. "Pettigrew, do you remember how long it took us to finish that map? Three years! _Three years! _And now you just go and hand it over to Filch…"

"No I d-didn't!" Peter said defiantly.

"You as good as did," Sirius said loudly, "the whole point of the Map was to _not _get caught, Pettigrew! That's the reason you took it to the kitchens!"

"And," Remus contributed, "Now it will never be finished! We'll never get to add the Room to it!" he seemed to inflate with anger, "Aren't you supposed to be a Marauder, one of us?" Peter nodded weakly, and said nothing. "Well, I really don't know anymore," he said angrily, "after an act of treason this big…"

James and Sirius nodded their agreement. "You should be on Marauder probation, during which time you will not participate in any pranks, Marauder meetings, or any nightly outings we may or may not participate in. Is that clear?

Peter nodded, chalk white. "The only way for you to receive Marauder recognition again," James continued, "is to either pull off your own prank without help, get an "Outstanding" on a test, or retrieve the Map from Filch's office." Peter stared at them.

All four of them knew which one he would have to do. "Pity that Animagus test was last week," commented Remus. James and Sirius snorted.

"You will be allowed to sit with us, but you will take no part in anything Marauder-related. Clear?" Sirius asked, glaring at him. He nodded quickly. "Very well, let's let the House down now."

They told Lily and Frank to let everybody down, and soon the House was once again down in the common room, shooting curious glances at who they thought were the four Marauders.

"What was that about?" Lily asked a red-faced James. "Aren't you going to go add the Room to the Map?"

The boys stiffened. "No," Sirius said after a moment of silence.

"Why not? You said you would go after…"

"Let's just say," James said through gritted teeth, "that our Map has gone on a prolonged vacation in a certain caretaker's office."

"_What?_" the girls exclaimed together. Peter's face was bright red. "Peter, how could you get caught if you were carrying the Map?" Sarah asked.

"Exactly what we asked," Remus snarled, "Apparently his arms were full of _food_ so he put it in his _pocket_."

The girls goggled at him. "Crazy, we know," Sirius said, "but now he's not a proper Marauder any more. He's on Marauder probation—only getting accepted back if he pulls off his own prank, gets on Outstanding on a test, or gets the Map back."

The girls nodded in approval. "That's fair enough."

Peter seemed to be shrinking in his chair. The other six ignored him.

* * *

The next day, true to his word, James had a large sign on the Gryffindor notice board that read:

"_To all Gryffindor Quidditch players:_

_We now have practice four times a week—Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday at five o'clock to seven. We have to make up for the past month and a half and work hard if we want to win the Quidditch Cup again!_

_Captain James Potter_

All of his team members were fine with the practices, so that night, the seven trooped out to the Quidditch pitch. They were about to kick off when seven green-clad people walked onto the pitch. Swearing, James flew over. "Nott, I've got the pitch booked Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday! Why don't you come 'round tomorrow, or is your brain too tiny to process that?"

Nott's eyes narrowed. "You _Gryffindors _don't need to practice."

"Oh yeah?" James said, going at him nose-to-nose. "When was your last practice? Last week?"

Nott sneered but didn't answer. "Just what I thought. And when was the last time _we _got a practice in? Can your tiny brains compute that?"

"The last time _you _practiced," Nott smirked, "was in December. I must say that the Dark Lord has a nice way of making sure that the Slytherins win the Cup, stealing away their cap—"

James was at him in a heartbeat, and had him suspended upside-down in midair. He was angrier than any of those present had every seen him. "And you would know all about it from your dear old dad, wouldn't you, Nott?" James said in a deadly voice. The entire pitch was silent. Nott's face was chalk white.

"Don't…know…what…" he began, but James cut him off.

"Don't play stupid—we got _very _well acquainted with your father…" he let Nott fall to the ground. "Leave. Now." He said calmly, but all present knew that there was venom behind it. The seven Slytherins quickly left the pitch.

"Right," James said through gritted teeth, "let's get started."

Despite his run-in with Nott, James was very pleased with the way the practice turned out. The rest of the team seemed overjoyed to have their captain back, and worked harder than ever. James was simply happy to get back on his broom again.

"If we play that well in our match against Ravenclaw," he told the team happily after their practice, "they won't have a chance."

Five of the team members nodded happily and left for the common room. However, Anthony, a Beater, held James back. "What was that about with Nott earlier?" James turned slowly.

"All in good time, Anthony. All in good time."

* * *

Back in the common room, Lily asked, "How did practice go?"

"The actual practice went fine," James said evasively.

"What do you mean, 'the actual practice'?"

"We had a run-in with a certain Theodore Nott, who was under the impression that the Slytherin team needed to practice more than we did…"

"How'd you get them to go away?" Peter asked, wide-eyed. Without looking at him, James said,

"Cursed him."

Lily kicked him under the table, hard. "What have I told you about attacking people unprovoked?"

"Oh, I definitely was not unprovoked…" and he told them what Nott said. They were livid.

"That…stupid…stinking…son of a…"

"We get the point, Sirius," Sarah said hurriedly. However, he continued to mumble under his breath for another minute before finally recovering.

"He should get kicked off the team!" he blurted finally. The others stared at him.

"What are you talking about?"

"That git…"

"Sirius? Let's get to the present. We're talking about Ireland's chances for the World Cup."


	29. XXIX

**XXIX.**

A week and a half later, the Gryffindors descended to a very strange common room. Completely decked out in red and gold, an enormous poster proclaimed, "Happy Birthday Remus!"

Smiling, Laurie said, "Must be a Marauder's birthday…" and they walked down to Friday's breakfast.

They immediately found where the Marauders were sitting, for there was an enormous party hat on three of their heads, and a very disgruntled Remus was also wearing a ribbon that said "Birthday Boy" in red letters. They laughed as they sat down and began eating breakfast. "Love the hats," Lily said, addressing the three Marauders.

""Thanks, we're wearing them all day. Plus…" he grinned, "we've got something planned for dinner as well."

Throughout the day, the Marauders received many odd looks; however, they ignored them.

Peter seemed to be getting the most looks. Everyone was confused, as he was supposed to be a Marauder as well. Even McGonagall seemed surprised when he sat quietly next to Laurie, and did not participate in their mid-class conversation. Dinner finally arrived, and the girls were on edge wondering what the Marauders had planned. Halfway through, they got their answer.

Sirius sprang up onto the table, his gray eyes glowing. The Hall gradually quieted.

"I'm assuming everybody knows that it's Remus' birthday," he said. Everybody nodded slowly. "I believe a birthday song is in order." McGonagall sighed, and many students rolled their eyes. "No, c'mon, it's his last birthday here! His last birthday at Hogwarts! We're singing happy birthday to him, the _Marauder _way." Many people rolled their eyes again. "Here are the lyrics—" Sirius waved his wand, and words appeared in the air, "—and sing them to the tune of the original song. Got it?"

James got up as well and stood on the table in a conductor's stance. "A one, and a two, and a one two three!" Sighing, the majority of the Hall began singing, raising their eyebrows at the lyrics.

_Happy birthday to you_

_You live in a zoo_

_Well actually you don't_

_So we'll make one for you!_

The teachers realized a second too late what the lyrics meant, and watched in horror as ducks and other small animals appeared and began attacking certain people, mainly the Slytherins. Screaming and running for cover, those afflicted by duck-itis ran out of the Hall.

"They should have sung to Remus," Sirius said in mock-sorrow. The remaining students in the Hall laughed.

"Potter! Black! Lupin! Pettigrew!" McGonagall said, beside herself. "Come…"

"You only need to steal away me and Prongs, Minnie," Sirius said, "It was Remus' birthday, so he knew nothing about it, and Peter didn't do anything either."

McGonagall looked slightly flustered. "Black and Potter then!"

They followed her out of the Hall, bellowing one last "Happy birthday Moony!" before she slammed the door.

* * *

That night in the 7th year boy's dormitory, Remus was clutching a blood-red piece of parchment, a slightly manic glint in his eye. "Ready?" he asked his friends, grinning evilly.

"Ready," they answered, and the fun began.

* * *

Two days later, John Schulte, sitting in his flat in the heart of London, was very surprised to get any mail at all, and was even more surprised to discover that it was a Howler. He hesitantly opened it, and was nearly knocked off of his chair by the yelling coming from it.

"_Schulte, you git! Why did you think you could get away with that?" _screamed the voice of one Remus Lupin, magnified multiple times the normal volume. _"You're lucky only Frank found out, otherwise you'd be getting much worse than a Howler! Dumbledore and McGonagall were furious enough as it was! Why you ever became a teacher is beyond me. You should have been some sort of dung collector, if anything. You shouldn't have even been born! You're worse than the dirt on the bottom of my shoe! You're one of the lowest beings on the planet!"_

The Howler ended with a rather large raspberry that Schulte suspected was contributed to by all of the Marauders. Soon after, it crumbled into ashes on his small kitchen table. He sat there for a moment before laughing manically for several minutes on end.

* * *

Sandy and Ralph Brown stood at the door of 210, wondering what the crazy man in the flat above them was doing now.

"Last year and this past month were so peaceful when he was off teaching," Sandy said wistfully. Tom nodded his agreement.

"He probably got fired for scaring the children."

"So should we risk going in and asking what's going on?" Sandy asked, raising her eyebrows. They both thought for a minute.

"Nah," they said together, and returned to their flat.

* * *

Even after the forty points James and Sirius lost Gryffindor, they were still 150 points ahead of Ravenclaw—580 to Ravenclaw's 430. Slytherin was, of course, in last place with a pathetic 55.

Peter still had not redeemed himself in the Marauders' eyes, but, to their surprise, he had earned an E on a Herbology test. "It's still not an O," Sirius said stubbornly as they sat in front of the fire on the first of March, "He needs to get an O to get back in."

"Where is he, anyways?" James asked.

"Said something about the library…" Remus said, "maybe he's actually studying for a change."

"Or maybe he's planning his prank," Sarah mused, "That's his most likely option."

The others laughed. "You're probably right."

* * *

The next few days were entirely uneventful, and many of the castle's inhabitants were wondering why the Marauders had done nothing since Remus' birthday.

That all changed on the morning of March fifth.

Everyone walked into the Great Hall, relatively happy. What met their eyes made them burst out laughing.

All of the teachers had neon-colored hair. To their horror, they realized that their hair had changed color as well. As soon as the Hall had assembled, Dumbledore announced, "I wish for you to go about your day as normally as possible." Here, he glanced at James, Sirius, and Remus, who were sporting turquoise, yellow, and bright purple hair. They looked completely bewildered. He sat down and the chatter immediately resumed.

"Who the bloody hell did this?" James said, ruffling his turquoise hair. "Who else would pull a prank?"

Lily was staring down the table at Peter, who was sitting with Frank, orange hair adorning his head. "You don't think…"

Remus followed her gaze, and immediately understood. "I bet he did!" he said, dumbstruck. "How come we never thought of this?"

"Dunno, but this is brilliant…Peter!" Sirius called down the table.

"Yeah?"

"This is brilliant!"

He blushed red, clashing horribly with his hair. "You mean it?"

"Would we say it if we didn't mean it? Party, dormitory, tonight!"

Peter's face split into a wide grin.

* * *

"Potter! Black! Lupin!" McGonagall called after them on their way out of Transfiguration, "Stay a moment!"

They hung back, looking confused. McGonagall looked very agitated, but the Marauders figured that it was because her hair was lime green instead of the usual charcoal black. "Did you do this?" she asked.

"No, Professor," James said immediately. Seeing her skeptical face, he added, "You can question me under Veritaserum if you want, but _none _of us did this. We don't know who did."

McGonagall still looked disbelieving, but said, "There is also something else I would like to mention. I received a letter from John Schulte today, saying that Mr Lupin sent him a Howler…"

"Professor—" Remus began defensively.

"…and I must award twenty points to Gryffindor for giving an idiotic git exactly what he deserves."

* * *

That night, alone in the nearly pitch black seventh year boys' dormitory, a single candle was all that gave light to those four present.

James Potter came into view, and stood, holding the candle. He recited the code the four of them had come up with over five years ago. "Peter David Pettigrew," he began solemnly, "repeat after me."

"I solemnly swear,"

"I solemnly swear,"

"To keep to the Marauder code of laws,"

"To keep to the Marauder code of laws,"

"For all the days of my life."

"For all the days of my life."

"I promise to pull pranks,"

"I promise to pull pranks,"

"To cause mischief everywhere,"

"To cause mischief everywhere,"

"And to always hate and denounce the Dark Arts."

"And to always hate and denounce the Dark Arts."

"I will never tell the Marauders' secrets,"

"I will never tell the Marauders' secrets,"

"And forever follow Dumbledore and the side of the Light."

"And forever follow Dumbledore and the side of the Light."

"Forever and always shall I keep to this code,"

"Forever and always shall I keep to this code,"

"Lest I be forever shunned from the clan of the Marauders."

"Lest I be forever shunned from the clan of the Marauders."

James stepped forward. "Peter David Pettigrew," he said, "Do you promise to never turn to the Dark Side, and to always follow Albus Dumbledore?"

"I do."

Sirius now walked up. "Peter David Pettigrew, do you swear to be always faithful to your fellow Marauders, and to never turn your back on them in their times of need?"

"I do."

And finally, Remus stepped forward. "Peter David Pettigrew, do you swear never to tell any Marauder secrets, whether in front of a classmate or Lord Voldemort himself?"

Peter paused for a split-second before saying, "I do."

The room was silent for a few moments, then the lights suddenly flashed on and Sirius' jubilant voice filled the dormitory—

"PARTY TIME!"

And so the four Marauders partied late into the night, Frank coming up at one a.m. to find Remus crashed on his bed, and the other three still awake, bottles of firewhiskey in their hands and very drunk.

Peter was probably the most sober of the three conscious Marauders—which wasn't saying much as James and Sirius were doing some sort of weird cross between the chicken dance and Macarena, in only their boxers. In answer to Frank's questioning look at Remus, Peter gestured out of the window, where the clear night sky showed the waxing gibbous of a moon shining brightly. "James? Sirius?" Frank said loudly.

They stopped their rather alarming dance and turned to face him. "What?" Sirius asked drunkenly.

"I think it's time for you all to go to bed."

James gave him an odd look. "Why?"

Frank pointed at the clock. James squinted very hard to read it, and his vision wasn't helped by the fact that his glasses had somehow gotten stuck to the ceiling.

"But it's only seven o'clock," he said after nearly a minute of staring intently at the illuminated Muggle clock.

"No, James, it's one o'clock in the morning," Frank said, having gotten used to the Marauders' parties.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that it's already Saturday, and you four are going to have giant hangovers."

They stared at him, not comprehending his compound sentence.

"It means you have to go to bed."

"Aww!" the three said together.

"No arguing!" Frank said, feeling like their mother, "Go to bed; you're lucky it's a weekend!"

The three remaining Marauders got grumpily into their beds, and despite their resistance, fell asleep almost instantly.


	30. XXX

**XXX.**

The next two weeks passed in a flurry of N.E.W.T. preparation and Quidditch practice, and soon March eighteenth arrived—the day of the Gryffindor-Ravenclaw Quidditch match. James was not overly worried when most of the rest of the school booed him and his team as they walked into the Hall; they had flattened Hufflepuff back in November 310 to 70, and he had no worries about the game against Ravenclaw. If anything, it would secure their chances for the Cup.

"Great conditions," he told the team brightly over his scrambled eggs. The other six members of the team seemed very optimistic as well. "We'll flatten Ravenclaw, no problem!"

Walking out of the Hall to tumultuous cheers and boos, the team headed for the locker rooms. After changing, James gave them a short pep talk before walking to the Quidditch Pitch.

One quarter of the stands was a wall of red and gold, and the other three quarters were solid blue and bronze. Unfazed by this, the Gryffindors walked into the center of the pitch. After James shook hands with Belby, the Ravenclaw Captain and Seeker, Madame Hooch let the balls out, and the game began.

"And now, for the next Quidditch match of the season!" Sirius' voice boomed out of the commentator's box, "Gryffindor vs. Ravenclaw!"

The crowd cheered and booed. "Now that the Gryffindor team is back with full force after their hiatus, their captain, James Potter, has trained them harder than ever! Sorry, Ravenclaw, you're going to get your birdie butts kicked."

The Gryffindors laughed, and the rest of the school booed. Sirius grinned.

"That's not my opinion, it's fact."

The two teams were up in the air, with Sirius commentating like he had since third year—sarcastically dissing the opposing team and cheering on his own.

"…and James has the Quaffle again! He's out of Bludger range, c'mon, James…YES! 30-0 to Gryffindor! In your face, birdies!"

"Black…" McGonagall said warningly.

"That's my name, don't wear it out!" Sirius said cheerfully.

"I believe it's too late for that, Mr Black," Dumbledore said, his eyes twinkling, "Didn't she wear it out some time in your first year?"

Sirius laughed. "If not the first month, Professor!

"…and Ravenclaw has the Quaffle…ooh, nice interception by fourth year Olivia Solis there…c'mon, Olivia, score…!"

And again, Gryffindor scored. "40-0 Gryffindor!" Sirius yelled jubilantly into his microphone.

The game lasted for another half-hour, the score being 150-60. "And…James has the Quaffle again…wait! Clark has seen the Snitch! She's tearing after it! Ravenclaw will never catch up…"

Caitlin was nearly there, reaching out her hand for the Snitch. Ravenclaw was two feet behind her; he wouldn't be able to catch up in time…

Then, a red spell came out of nowhere and hit Caitlin squarely in the face. She tipped sideways off of her broom and began to fall the at least seventy feet to the ground. The crowd gasped as one; however, Sirius…

"Who did that?" he roared, "Deliberate attack on Gryffindor's Seeker! Somebody catch her…!"

James was way ahead of him. Dropping the Quaffle, he sped across the field, urging his broom on…

Five feet from the ground, he let go of his broom and caught Caitlin out of the air, lowering it to the ground and setting her down. Madame Pomfrey and Madame Hooch hurried out onto the pitch. James moved out of the way quickly, the spectators applauding his spectacular save.

A flash of light later, Caitlin was awake and very confused. "What happened?"

"Someone Stunned you, and you fell off your broom."

"Who saved me?"

"Mr Potter."

Caitlin spun around and gave James a hug. "Thank you so much!"

He smiled. "Any time."

After Caitlin's approval, Madame Hooch blew her whistle, and the game resumed. Ten minutes later, the Seekers were again tearing up the pitch in fast pursuit of the small golden Snitch. The entire stadium stopped to watch.

The two Seekers were neck and neck, both urging their brooms to the limit. Caitlin got a burst of speed, knocked Belby's hand out of the way, and closed hers around the Snitch. The Gryffindors erupted into cheers, and Sirius yelled, "Clark has caught the Snitch! Gryffindor wins 320-100!"

Caitlin flew up to meet her teammates, who looked delirious with joy. "Party! Common room!" James yelled. More cheers from the Gryffindors.

"Nobody is leaving this stadium!" McGonagall yelled into Sirius' microphone, "Until we find out who Stunned Miss Clark!"

The entire stadium was suddenly silent. "It came from that direction," Caitlin said helpfully, pointing to the Slytherin stands.

"All right, fess up!" McGonagall roared, "Who cursed the Gryffindor Seeker?" Nobody said anything. "I'm not letting anybody leave this pitch until the perpetrator confesses!" Still nobody spoke up. "I will let nobody off this pitch for _anything _until you confess!" McGonagall warned.

Another few minutes passed until Remus suggested, "Why don't you take all of the wands from the people in that general direction and see what the last spell they cast was?"

McGonagall considered the idea. "It'll take a while, so we'll use that as a last resort, if nobody confesses in ten minutes."

Another five minutes passed, and the crowd was getting restless, yelling for whoever did it to fess up. Four minutes later, still nobody had said anything. "I'm warning you…" McGonagall said.

Another minute passed. "Right; all the teachers, go over there and check their wands!" Sirius said into his recently rescued microphone.

Sighing, all of the teachers made their way over to the stands. Going up and down the rows, they tested all of the Slytherins' wands. After ten minutes, Professor Flitwick's squeaky little voice floated above all the mutterings. _"Aha!" _He held a relatively short wand in the air in triumph, a very red-faced Theodore Nott sitting beside him. "We have the culprit!"

"And Theodore Nott, Slytherin Keeper and Captain, has been found guilty! And the rest of the staff is going over now…" Sirius informed the students.

Everybody watched as the teachers converged on Nott. What Sirius could see of his head nodded, still very red. "And Nott admits to the crime!" Sirius yelled triumphantly to the crowd. "So, Minnie, can we leave now?"

Everyone laughed at Sirius' use of her loathed nickname. McGonagall nodded curtly, and the stadium cheered. "What did I tell you, Ravenclaw?" Sirius smirked, "Said you'd get your birdie butts kicked, didn't I?"

The Ravenclaws booed while the Gryffindors laughed. Soon, the school was walking up to the castle, the Marauders lagging behind to wait for James.

"Brilliant!" Sirius and James said at the same time. The girls burst out laughing, and Remus and Peter grinned. "What?" they said simultaneously. This made them laugh even harder. James and Sirius were confused all the way down to the kitchens, where they quickly requested that food be sent to the Gryffindor common room. Then they walked up to the common room themselves, crawling inside to cheers and whistles. James and Sirius grinned, forgetting their confusion.

The food was magicked up a few minutes later, and the party began—the Gryffindor stars and Sirius being the center of attention.

The party lasted until two in the morning, when McGonagall walked in and made them go to sleep. Most of the younger students trudged up soon after this, but the Marauders stayed until three cleaning up. Not voluntarily, however…

"Lily," James complained at two-thirty.

"You made the mess, Potter, you clean it up!"

They worked in silence for another half-hour until the girls deemed the common room fit to live in again. They staggered up to their dorms to find their dorm mates fast asleep, and in Frank's case, snoring loudly. Wincing at the sound of their dorm mate's snores, the Marauders got into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

All of the Hogwarts students checked their calendars, and all of them flinched when they saw what day it was. All of them but four, who shared equally wicked grins.

The Marauders looked especially tired on the first of April, and every student and teacher in Hogwarts knew why. "So…" Lily said casually over breakfast, "…you four doing anything special today?"

They ignored her and continued eating. "Do you really think they're going to answer that?" Laurie asked logically. Lily laughed.

"Guess not."

The first sign of anything suspicious was the appearance of a large teddy bear in each doorway of Hogwarts. They sat in the middle of the doorframe, and there was no way for the Hogwartians to get around them.

The first person to try and move a bear was, to the Marauders' delight, none other than Severus Snape. A puff of pink smoke covered a circle with a radius of twenty feet, and when the smoke cleared, everyone hit with it sported a pink bow tie and the head of a teddy bear.

Lily-bear frowned at James-bear, who was grinning like a moron. "Did you do this?"

James-bear smiled wider. Lily-bear smacked him.

* * *

Nobody learned anything on April first, as everyone was a teddy bear mutant with differing-colored bow ties. What was also amusing was that the teddy bear head seemed to take on the person's traits; Lily was fire-truck red and Snape was so greasy that the grease was almost dripping off his black fur-hair.

Dumbledore-bear stood up at lunch—his lime green bow tie clashed with his navy robes. "Hopefully this will wear off by tomorrow," he glanced at the Marauders, who nodded slightly. "Wonderful. In the meantime, please try and proceed as normally as possible." He almost sat down, but then caught himself. "I would appreciate it if the Marauders would stay and talk to me a moment before your final class."

The Marauders glanced at each other before finishing their lunch and walking up to the staff table as the rest of the school was leaving.

Dumbledore-bear's eyes were twinkling, but McGonagall-bear was furious. "You four…" she began, but Dumbledore-bear interrupted her rant before it began.

"Under normal circumstances, this would cause you to lose Gryffindor quite a few house points and earn you at least a week of detention; however, today _has _been dubbed April Fool's Day, so I think I shall award you each ten house points for a prank well pulled."

McGonagall-bear's mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. "But…Albus…they…teddy bear…"

Eyes twinkling, the Headmaster turned to McGonagall-bear. "If I remember correctly, a little more than forty years ago a little girl named Minerva got into just as much trouble as these four here…"

It was the Marauders' turn to gape. _McGonagall was a prankster?_

"Yes, but I didn't pull them every day like they do, and I _always _got my work done!" she said, turning slightly red in the face—if a teddy bear could blush.

"We don't pull pranks every day!" Sirius-bear said indignantly, "And we get our homework done, too!"

"But…but…" McGonagall-bear spluttered. Dumbledore-bear laughed.

"You all may want to go to class."

McGonagall-bear had a very ugly look on her face as they split in the Entrance Hall—McGonagall-bear for her class, and the Marauders for Herbology.

* * *

Sirius-bear grinned evilly in the common room that night. "McGonagall! Oooooh…she's never going to live that down…" he cackled insanely. The girls stared at him.

"What are you going on about?"

Remus-bear also grinned the trademark Marauder grin. "McGonagall confessed to being a prankster during our little meeting after lunch."

Sarah-bear choked. "No. Way."

"Yes way," James-bear said, an evil glint in his eye, "And we'll make sure the school knows before we leave…"

"Good luck with that," Lily-bear said, "She'll probably Obliviate the school if you do."

James-bear shrugged. "I just want to see the look on everyone's faces."


	31. XXXI

**XXXI.**

Easter break began on April eighth, and many people chose to stay at Hogwarts for varying reasons. Some people had no home to go to, like Lily James, and Sirius. Others' parents had insisted that, after the attack on Reading, their children should stay at Hogwarts for their protection.

As a result of this, nearly half of the Gryffindors were staying at Hogwarts over Easter break, and the common room seemed just as crowded as usual. The Marauders all received Easter eggs from the Lupins, Pettigrews, Kellisons, and Victonias, and Sirius got a ten-year-out-of-date chocolate egg the size of a quarter. A note was attached—

"_Hope you don't have a happy Easter. Glad you're finally out of our hair for good."_

Sirius laughed and threw the letter into the fire. "I'm surprised they wasted the parchment, just for me!"

The girls looked scandalized. "How could someone do that to their own child?"

"I'm not their kid," Sirius said, "My parents died back in December." He threw the rock-hard egg into the air and caught it again. "Anyone up for a game of indoor Quidditch?"

Indoor Quidditch, it turned out, was regular Quidditch without the broomsticks and Bludgers. Sirius swore he made up the sport himself. Rounding up Frank, Alice, and Anthony, the game began. Using the egg as a Quaffle, the Chasers—James, Laurie, and Anthony on one team and Sirius, Remus, and Alice on the other—ran across the common room, throwing the "Quaffle" to each other, upturning chairs and tables in the process. The Gryffindors quickly packed everything away and stood against the walls, watching the game in amusement.

Using tables turned on their sides as goals, the six Chasers attempted to get the "Quaffle" past Peter and Sarah, the Keepers. Meanwhile, Lily and Frank attempted to find James' Snitch, which he had let go into the common room. It was charmed to move slower to allow the possibility of capture.

Half an hour into the game, there was an almighty "crash" and Lily jumped up triumphantly, the Snitch in her hand.

"Final score: 410 to 250!" yelled the self-appointed scorekeeper. "Team one, consisting of James Potter, Lily Evans, Laurie Victonia, Peter Pettigrew, and Anthony Lewis wins!"

James stuck his tongue out at Sirius childishly, and he returned the gesture. Lily scowled. "Will you two _ever _grow up?"

"Nope!"

After putting the common room back together, the seven sat down, flushed with excitement. "That. Was. Awesome." Sarah said, grinning.

"Thanks, we four made it up at James' place when we got bored…got his parents to play, and there was only one Chaser for each team. More is better."

Easter dinner was magnificent, as usual. Walking up to the common room afterward, the Marauders felt completely satisfied, content, and at peace with the world for the first time in months. "You know, we probably should pull a prank for Easter," Sirius said lazily, twirling his wand between his fingers.

"When the other half of school gets back, Padfoot. It'll be better that way."

* * *

The rest of the school came back the following Sunday, happy that Voldemort had not attacked anyone over the Easter holidays. They were surprised when they walked into the Great Hall the next morning; all of the food was shaped as rabbit heads. Supposing that the house elves were just wishing them a belated "Happy Easter", they dug into their meal hungrily. Nothing unusual happened.

Halfway through their first class, that all changed.

Professor Bumble was in the middle of teaching the seventh years how to fight a banshee, when he suddenly stiffened. Everyone stared at him confusedly, until, one by one, all of the seventh year Defense students were sitting perfectly still.

All at once, everyone regained the use of their bodies, and they laughed when Professor Bumble hopped to the blackboard instead of walked. Bumble looked just as confused as his class did amused, and took an experimental step forward. He hopped again.

By this time, most of the class was rolling around on the ground in hysterics. After waiting for them to compose themselves, Bumble continued to teach his class. The bell dismissed them half an hour later, and to the students' horror, they were all hopping their way around Hogwarts. No matter how hard they tried to walk normally, it didn't work. The Marauders found this highly amusing, but Professor McGonagall did not. Cornering them after Transfiguration, she yelled at them for a good ten minutes before finally letting them out to lunch.

"Did you hear anything she said?" Sirius asked conversationally. The other three shook their heads. "Let's hope she didn't give us detention then, because I didn't either."

"We're growing on her," James said confidently, "It's taken six and a half years, but she'll miss us when we're gone in two and a bit months."

Remus smirked. "Do you really think so?"

"I know so!"

At lunch, McGonagall hopped up the Gryffindor table to the Marauders. "Your detentions start tonight, and run through Friday. Six o'clock in Filch's office."

"Right-o, Minnie," Sirius said. Scowling, she hopped away, the Gryffindors howling with laughter.

* * *

Lily, Sarah, and Laurie sat in the library that night studying while the Marauders were serving their detention. "I cannot _believe _how much homework they're giving us!" Sarah said, throwing down her quill in frustration.

"We've got our N.E.W.T.s in two months," Lily reminded her, "And this is our last year at school."

"Yeah, but we've got at _least_ an essay in every class! Do they want us to live to see the real world?"

"That is debatable," Laurie said thoughtfully, "This war is getting pretty bad, they may not want us to see everything that's going on."

"And just let Voldemort take over?" Sarah asked incredulously, "As if! I'm joining the resistance right out of school!"

Lily and Laurie nodded in agreement. "I'm not just going to let Voldemort take over the world, I'm going to try and make a difference," Lily said decisively. "Voldemort needs to pay…" she shook her head and picked up her quill again. Her friends needed to hear no more to understand what she meant.

"When do you reckon you're going to tell the house?" Laurie asked cautiously.

Lily thought a moment. "Probably soon…I'll talk it over with James."

* * *

A week and a half later, James posted a sign on the Gryffindor notice board:

"_All Gryffindors need to be in the common room by six-thirty tonight for an important meeting._

_Thanks, James Potter and Lily Evans"_

The Gryffindors were very intrigued by this notice, and were attempting to get the Marauders to tell them what it was about all day. None of their attempts were successful, so the entire Gryffindor house was seated in the common room at the appointed time, wondering what in the world was going on.

At six-thirty, James asked, "Is everyone here?" After a few moments of checking, he got an affirmative answer. "Good, because we're only going through this once…" He spun two of the chairs around, and he and Lily sat in them.

"You're probably wondering what the heck we called a meeting for," Lily said. They all nodded. "Well, it's for something you've been waiting a few months for now—three, if I'm not mistaken…"

There were some mutterings, but they were soon quieted. "You've wanted to know about this for some time now," James continued, nearly all of the humor gone from his face. "We told you that we wouldn't tell you until later. Well, it's later now…"

Dawning comprehension showed on some of the older Gryffindors' faces, but many of the younger ones still looked confused.

"It started on December 20…Professor Dumbledore Flooed James and told him that Voldemort—" here many people flinched, and she scowled. "Get used to it, we're going to use it a lot—was planning on attacking, we evacuated the town. We—'we' being us two, Frank, and Alice," she nodded to them, and they turned very red, "were just about to leave as well when Voldemort and quite a few Death Eaters Apparated in and cornered us."

Observing the Gryfffindors' reactions, James noted that every one of them looked terrified. _Geez, and nothing's hardly happened yet_. "If I remember correctly, Sirius told you when we returned that this story is not for the faint-hearted. Let me reemphasize that. If you think that's terrifying, that's nothing_—nothing—_to what happened after that. If you don't think you can handle much more than this, I advise you to leave now."

Nobody moved. "All right, but don't say we didn't warn you…

"Voldemort attempted to find out where everyone was hiding. He even put Lily under the Cruciatus Curse," here there was a large collective gasp from all those present, and all were very white, "but we still didn't tell him.

"Then, a bunch of Aurors showed up, and me and Lily got knocked out. Did anything else happen after that?" he directed out at Frank and Alice.

"The people that wouldn't leave came out to the square to see what was going on," Alice said sadly, "They were killed almost instantly by the Death Eaters. Then some Aurors Apparated us to Hogsmeade and brought us to Dumbledore, so we don't know anything else."

James composed himself for a moment before going on, "You all know what happened from there from the newspaper articles. Everyone was either dead, missing, or injured. Then Petunia, Frank and Alice were accounted for, so it was just Lily and I "missing". The Death Eaters had Apparated us to Voldemort's lair, where we were allotted a six-by-eight cell to live in."

Angry outbursts followed this. "What were they playing at?" Anthony yelled out. James shrugged.

"One of their ways of weakening us. It definitely worked."

"When we came to, we discovered that Arthur Weasley and Madame Pomfrey were also being held prisoner," Lily continued, "and we befriended Arthur almost immediately. Once he learned that we were still in school, he tried to think of a way to get us out. He finally decided on writing a letter to Professor Dumbledore."

Comprehension dawned on many faces. "Was that the day we all skipped class to have a party?" one of the younger students asked.

"I'm assuming so, yes. We sent that a week and a half before it arrived; we'll never know what took it so long."

"Soon after we finally sent the letter on its way, Voldemort decided to torture us on at least a daily basis." The Gryffindors gasped as one.

"How bad was it?" a girl asked in a hushed voice.

"Worse than you could possibly imagine," Lily answered, looking the Gryffindors in their faces. "If I look closely in the mirror, I can still see the scar from a nasty slicing jinx on my cheek. James has one down his neck." A few of them leaned forward in their chairs slightly, obviously looking for them. "The Healers almost completely erased them, but they're still there," Lily continued, tracing hers. "Something we'll be able to tell our grandkids about, eh?" James chuckled.

"The epic of the century."

"By then we had figured out that we were going to have to survive on rather inadequate food," Lily said, thinking that she should have brought earplugs to cushion the explosion of noise that was sure to arrive.

There was a second of silence, and then a brave soul asked, "What did they give you to eat?"

"A piece of moldy black bread about, oh, three inches by three inches, and a cup of muddy water, probably four inches tall, every other day." James said, and they both tensed internally for the burst of voices that came a split second later.

Every single Gryffindor was either yelling obscenities about Voldemort and his Death Eaters, sobbing uncontrollably about the horror of it, or both. It took a couple of minutes for it to die down.

"How did you survive for a month there?" a small boy asked, trying and failing to keep tears from falling down his cheeks.

"We knew that Dumbledore would try to save us; that kept us going. Having friends there helped enormously as well."

"On January twenty-second, the four Heads came down, disguised as Death Eaters, to our cells. They eventually convinced us that they weren't Death Eaters, unlocked our cell doors, and took us upstairs. We found our wands, and against their wishes, went off to fight the Death Eaters with the Aurors and other teachers."

"One of the Death Eaters cornered us, and kept trying to curse us until he finally hit us with the Morte Lenta curse." Everyone looked confused until she elaborated, "It's a really Dark curse that slowly kills you if you're not given the antidote." Again, all the Gryffindors looked terrified. "Dumbledore presumably then got us to St. Mungo's and gave us the antidote, because we woke up later that afternoon. At that point, Dumbledore had gotten our friends, my sister, and the Weasleys there, so they were there when we woke up."

Sirius stood and walked up to stand beside James' chair. "You can't possibly imagine what they looked like," he said quietly. "Hardly recognizable. If James hadn't been my best friend and brother, I wouldn't have recognized him. Covered in blood and grime, rail-thin and deathly pale, it was terrifying. At first, I thought Prongs was dead." Sirius' knuckles were now white from gripping the chair arm. "Let me advise you, if you don't want that to happen to you, don't piss Lord Voldemort off."

A few people laughed nervously. James grinned wryly. "Too late—I think we've already made him mad just by being Gryffindors in the first place."

"So, moral of the story—don't get on Moldy-Short's bad side even more, and _never _say you're hungry in the presence of James Potter or Lily Evans." Many people chuckled.

The Gryffindors slowly got up and migrated to the tables scattered throughout the common room. Anthony Lewis was in shock. As he sat down at a table with his friends, his mind raced with all of the things James and Lily had said.

_That's horrible…nobody but You-Know-Who himself deserves that…_

He could hardly imagine James and Lily living through that, much less himself. _I've been a git, _he thought, mentally slapping himself. Deciding to apologize, he walked over to the Marauders' table.

"James?" he said. They stopped their conversation to look up at him. "I just wanted to apologize for being an idiot for the past few months, about everything."

They laughed. "Just remember, curiosity killed the cat," Sarah remarked, smiling.

"So why isn't McGonagall dead?"

Their roaring laughter flew through the common room.


	32. XXXII

**XXXII.**

May fourteenth, along with February twenty-sixth, November fourteenth, and September thirtieth, was a date all Hogwarts residents knew and feared. Quite a bit. Each time one of these four dates rolled around, everyone in Hogwarts was cursing the Potters, Blacks, Lupins, and Pettigrews for not having their children over the summer.

Sirius woke up at three-thirty on the morning on his birthday, and was quick to wake his dormmates as well. Remus groaned and rolled over, James slapped him, Frank started muttering about something totally random, and Peter didn't move at all.

Sirius sighed self-pityingly and sat down again on his bed. Waiting all of thirty seconds, he yelled for the world to hear, "_I'm bored!_" James sat straight up in bed, blinking confusedly. Remus and Frank were also startled awake. Incredibly, Peter was still asleep.

"Sirius, couldn't this have waited until sunrise?" Remus asked grumpily. Sirius looked scandalized.

"Sirius Black, wait three whole hours to celebrate his birthday?"

"Yes, Sirius, do you want to be conscious for your birthday or not?"

He thought for a moment. "Well, if your definition of 'conscious' is 'sober', then not necessarily…"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Just go back to sleep, Padfoot."

"But I don't want to!" he whined.

"If you don't go back to sleep, you're not getting any presents."

Sirius immediately fell backwards, fake-snoring. Soon enough, however, the fake snores turned into real ones. Remus, who had been lying awake, quietly woke James and Peter.

First came the spell that caused Sirius to be oblivious to his modifications. They then spent the next hour changing Sirius' appearance completely. Finishing at around five o'clock, they fell back asleep in their beds, eager to see the school's reaction.

Sirius was, unsurprisingly, the first one up in the morning, and got ready to go quickly. Then he hopped onto his friends' beds, startling them awake. James, Remus, and Peter had trouble keeping from bursting out in peals of laughter.

Sirius stood, grinning and looking like a moron, in the middle of the dormitory. His nose was bright red, and he had two bright red circles on his cheeks. There were green circles around his eyes, which made him look like some sort of freak raccoon. His hair was dyed in every color of the rainbow, and tied up in little ponytails all over his head. Each ponytail had a little bell tied to it. Each of his fingernails was painted a different neon color.

They had charmed his robes to flash the Gryffindor colors in plaid, which Sirius loathed. On the back of his robes the words "BIRTHDAY BOY" flashed in purple and blue. He was wearing pink and neon green tie-dye toe socks with little flowers all over them, and his shoes with orange polka dots on them lit up as he walked. All in all, he looked stupid—there was no other way to describe it.

When Frank awoke and saw Sirius, his eyes became very wide. His mouth was open to ask Sirius exactly why he was dressed so horridly when Remus saw what he was doing, and violently shook his head. _"Tell you later."_

Frank took the hint and got ready for the final school day of the week.

"Sirius, go ahead and go down to the common room and wait for us there," James said, "we'll be down in a minute."

"All right," Sirius said cheerfully, and closed the door behind him. As soon as he was gone, the four began laughing hysterically. "What…did you do?" Frank laughed.

"Gave him a birthday prank, what else? He thinks he looks completely normal, he's got no clue he looks like a moron."

This made them laugh even harder, sorry that they had missed the looks on the Gryffindors' faces.

* * *

Sirius walked down to the common room, thinking he was top of the world. As people got a good look at him, the room quickly became very quiet. Thinking that they were just looking at his hotness, he nudged a miniscule boy out of one of the squishier chairs. He ran away like a bat out of Hell, his friends close behind him.

The Gryffindors were still silent, and it was unnerving Sirius slightly. _It doesn't usually take this long for people to get over my coolness…_

Lily pulled him aside, a unique look on her face—a cross between confusion, laughter, and anger. "What the heck did you do to yourself?"

Sirius gave her an odd look. "I didn't do anything."

"So you can't explain why you look like an idiot in completely clashing colors?"

"What are you talking about? How am I supposed to clash black with anything?"

"Sirius, you're not wearing a stitch of black. Here," she handed him her mirror, "Don't tell me you don't see anything out of the ordinary."

He looked intently into the mirror. "What am I supposed to be seeing?"

"An idiot."

Sirius looked hurt. "I see myself in normal clothes. This was set up, for everyone to stare at me for no reason!"

Lily raised her eyebrows. "No, Sirius, we definitely have a reason to stare at you."

He rolled his eyes and walked back to his chair. The common room was still eerily silent.

James, Remus, Peter, and Frank walked downstairs a minute later, and seemed amused by the confused looks on the Gryffindors' faces. They didn't say anything, took Sirius by the arm, and led him down to the Great Hall.

Those students already at breakfast looked very surprised when the Marauders walked in, and many people were laughing openly. Sirius ignored them and dug into his bacon, until McGonagall walked down between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff tables toward them. "What do you think you're wearing, Black?"

"My Hogwarts robes, Professor," Sirius answered, deciding to refrain from using her nickname because of the extra-murderous look on her face.

"You most certainly are _not _wearing your school uniform!" McGonagall said, looking as if she thought he had finally lost his marbles completely.

"Professor, I see nothing wrong with my appearance. Now, if you'd excuse me, I'd like to finish my breakfast."

McGonagall sighed. "If you do not let your act up by the end of the day, you will have detention all of next week for your impudence."

Sirius looked at her retreating back in bewilderment, "What the bloody hell was she going on about?"

His fellow Marauders shrugged, hiding smiles, but the girls rolled their eyes. "Exactly what I told you in the common room, Sirius," Lily said, sighing exasperatedly.

"I told you, I'm not wearing anything different than I normally do!"

* * *

The seventh year classes were chaotic, as Sirius was still oblivious to his "makeover", and snapped at anyone that asked him what the heck he was wearing. He still was convinced that he was dressed normally at dinner, so, true to her word, McGonagall gave him a week of detention. He was in a rage that night in the common room, and nobody wanted to be near him.

"Some birthday present, eh?" he ranted to his fellow Marauders. They attempted to stifle smiles. "What's so funny?" he asked sharply.

"Oh, nothing," James said unconvincingly.

"Really?" Sirius asked suspiciously. "Might it have anything to do with the fact that everyone has been saying that I'm dressed like a moron?"

"Perhaps."

Sirius' eyes narrowed. "Tell me. Now."

"First, we'll stand over by the portrait hole, and you'll stand over on the opposite side of the room. We'll tell you, and then run for our lives." Remus said seriously.

Sirius' eyes narrowed even more. "Why don't you tell me right here and now?"

"Because I'd like to live long enough to ask dear Lilikins to marry me," James replied cheekily.

Lily looked up from her N.E.W.T. practice papers, astonished. "James, I never thought you cared so much!" she said jokingly.

"Of course I do," James said, pretending to be hurt.

"He didn't ask you out unsuccessfully 449 times for nothing," Peter chimed in. James turned to stare at his friend.

"_You kept track?"_

"It was Sirius' idea," Peter informed him, "It was my job to keep track of how many times you asked her out, and Remus and Sirius planned the milestone celebrations."

The girls were laughing hysterically at this point. "If Lily had said no on number 450, we would have turned your hair tie-dye for a week." His six friends stared at him for a moment before laughing at the irony of the statement.

"What is it?" Sirius asked, looking as though he thought they had gone mad.

"It's just…_your _hair is tie-dye today…" Laurie laughed. Sirius' face hardened.

"Good try getting me off track, but I still want to know exactly _why _I got a week of detention."

"Maybe this will help," Remus said, pointing his wand at his friend and muttering the counter-charm. Lily then handed Sirius her mirror again, and James, Remus, and Peter took off running across the common room. Sirius stared after them for a moment before looking down into Lily's mirror. He froze, and his face turned very red.

"You…" he raced off after his friends, Lily, Sarah, and Laurie howling with laughter behind him.

The Marauders somehow evaded detection by the teachers, and arrived back half an hour later, three with black eyes and one with a very smug look on his face.

That night, Lily, Sarah, and Laurie gave Sirius the book that they had bought in Zonko's. His first impression was shock, happiness, and then a touch of an evil smirk. "This is brilliant."

Later that night, once again, Frank arrived in the dormitory to find four very drunken Marauders. He had difficulty in getting James, Remus, and Peter in bed, but even more with Sirius, as he insisted that he had to stay up all night in celebration of his birthday. When Frank finally got a word in edgewise and informed him that his friends were already asleep, he got into his bed as well, and was asleep in moments.

* * *

A week later, the seventh years were beginning to panic about the amount of work they were being assigned. The teachers had finished teaching them new material, and were giving them practice paper after practice paper, preparing them for their N.E.W.T.s that would arrive less than a month later.

The first to crack was Heather. Yelling that she was going to fail out of Hogwarts in the middle of Potions, she ran out of the dungeons sobbing. The classroom was silent before Kristin streaked after her.

Peter was not far behind Heather—and for good reason. The highest grades he had received on his O.W.L.s were two E's in Transfiguration and Potions—the former only because of James' expertise.

* * *

A few days later, a barn owl landed in front of Sirius during breakfast. "Who the bloody hell wrote to me?" he asked his friends, mystified.

"Why don't you open it and find out?"

Scowling at Peter, he opened the letter and scanned it. He grinned slightly.

"Oh no, he's grinning, that can't be good," Laurie muttered to Sarah and Lily. They laughed.

"Well, my dearest _parents _have finally kicked the bucket," Sirius said, grinning wider.

The girls stared at him, astonished. "How can you say that like it's a good thing?" Sarah asked with raised eyebrows.

"Because it _is _a good thing!" Sirius answered, mirroring her.

"Sarah, you've got parents who love you," Remus told her, "Sirius didn't have parents to love him until he ran off to James' place."

Sarah nodded slowly, but still looked skeptical. "But you still have to feel some sort of connection to them…"

"I've never felt any sort of connection with my parents. I was taken by the wrong people at the hospital—I'm really James' twin brother." Here they both grinned widely.

Lily rolled her eyes. "I really doubt that you two are twins, considering you were born six months apart."

"You have no clue how much we have in common."

The girls just rolled their eyes again, and Sirius craned his neck to find his brother at the Slytherin table. He soon found him and chuckled.

"Ickle Reggie is crying," he grinned. The others also looked over.

"So he is," Remus said, "But, I guess he was closer to your parents than you were, wasn't he?"

"I'm almost positive he's a Death Eater-in-training. I'm no closer to him than I was my parents."

"How did they die?" Peter asked interestedly.

Sirius consulted the letter. "Mum died of a heart attack—figures, she's always yelling, and dad died from yet-unknown causes. Not that I care, of course."


	33. XXXIII

**XXXIII.**

The seventh years were put under incredible pressure in the following week; the teachers, McGonagall especially, kept reminding them that their exams were a mere two weeks away. They were all reading, re-reading, and re-re-reading any scrap of parchment that had any notes on it. Lily had become so stressed that she handed out detention to anyone who talked above a whisper while in the common room or library, and everyone in the school knew not to bother the seventh years. Even James and Sirius were seen studying.

During a brief break in one of their study sessions, Lily asked, "So, what do you all want to do, grades permitting?"

"Auror," James and Sirius said immediately, while Peter shrugged and muttered something, and Remus said nothing at all.

"I think I might want to be a Healer," Sarah said thoughtfully.

"I was thinking the same thing, but now I think that being an Auror would be worth it," Lily said.

"I think being a curse breaker or something like that would be pretty cool," Laurie said, smiling.

"But then you'll be off in some foreign country!" Sarah said, surprised.

"I know; that's what's holding me back. Healer is probably my second choice."

"How about you two?" Sarah asked Peter and Remus.

Peter turned red. "C'mon, it can't be that bad!" Lily prompted him.

"Iwanttoworkinacandyshop," Peter said very quickly. Sirius grinned at him.

"Wormtail, that's the perfect job for you," he said, slapping him on the back. Peter grinned embarrassedly.

"Remus? What about you?"

At last, he looked up at them with haunted eyes. "Anything I can get."

Their eyes widened, and then filled with understanding. "It's all right, Remus, we love you," James said, slapping him on the back. "You'll always have us."

He smiled weakly. "You guys are the best."

* * *

The next day, Lily and James called a meeting of all the seventh years to discuss graduation and a lasting reminder to the school of the class of '78. Sirius suggested painting the Astronomy Tower Gryffindor colors, but that was struck down by the thirty non-Gryffindors.

They finally decided that they would have a graduation ceremony as well as a class motto. James suggested, "_Fear the Marauders!_" and while everyone agreed that it would be appropriate, it was vetoed as too immature. The four skulked during most of the rest of the meeting.

"Ok," Lily said, after they had thrown quips and aphorisms around for an hour, "We've got fifteen that would be passable as our motto. Do you want to vote now or tomorrow?"

A resounding "_Today!_" answered her questions. "All right—your choices are on the board," she flicked her wand, and the fifteen showed up, "Pick your two favorites and put their numbers on a piece of parchment."

This took only a minute, and then Lily and James spent a few minutes tallying them.

"Well, we have our top three; we'll vote again on these," James said, "In no particular order—'Dancing to the beat of our own drums', 'Friends are the angels that pick us up when our wings don't quite remember how to fly', and 'We must cry in order to grow, we must fail in order to know. Sometimes our vision only clears after our eyes are washed away with tears.' Very lengthy one there. Ok, those are the three choices—pick your favorite and put its number down." He flicked his wand too, and the other twelve on the board were erased, and the three left renumbered.

Another few minutes later, they had them tallied. "Quote number one got three votes," Lily announced, "Number two got seven, and number three got thirty. So, I suppose that's our motto!" She stood up, "Is everyone all right with that?" everyone nodded, "Good—prefects, during the next meeting we'll work out the particulars of graduation, and then bring them to Dumbledore." The eight prefects nodded, and everyone filed slowly out of the classroom.

"That went well," Lily said, breathing a sigh of relief, "I was afraid the Slytherin would start a riot or something."

Her friends nodded. "So was I," Remus said, "Snivellus looked pretty murderous—maybe his favorite didn't get picked. Such a shame."

* * *

The next prefect meeting was very brief for the fifth and sixth years—all Lily told them to do was patrol the halls, and sent them on their way. The seventh years stayed back. "Right—about the ceremony…"

They got every detail down about what would happen—from where it would be to what they would wear—and after James and Lily dismissed their peers to patrol, they walked to Dumbledore's office together and showed him their plans.

After reading through them carefully, Dumbledore smiled at them. "If you can get this set up, feel free to do it. It is your graduation, after all."

Lily smiled back. "We'll have it set up, don't worry."

Dumbledore nodded again, "I'll say it again—it's your graduation. I daresay you two are mature enough to handle this. Oh yes, Mr Potter," he said, smiling, "You are much more mature than you know. All you students are."

* * *

June fifth brought the Quidditch Final, which provided a nice reprieve from the constant fretting and studying.

"Ok guys," James said in the locker room before the game, "I've got one last chance to win the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor. After this, I'm probably never going to play a real game of Quidditch again. So, all I have to say is—make me proud."

"…And it's the final Quidditch match of the year!" Sirius said into the megaphone, "The most anticipated game—Gryffindor versus Slytherin!" The crowd cheered loudly. "This is the last game for captains James Potter and Theodore Nott, and the last game I'll ever commentate." He contemplated that for a moment. "Wow, that sounds depressing. You'll never have another commentator as good as me. Minnie's gonna miss me, aren't you?" He patted her on the shoulder, and she scowled. The crowd laughed. "Anyways, Gryffindor has the Quaffle…c'mon James…!

"Oh no, the Slytherin Keeper saved it…and now Slytherin has the Quaffle…"

The game lasted for over an hour before the Seekers went into action. The score was 230-220 to Gryffindor.

Not a sound was heard as Caitlin and the Slytherin tore through the stadium, their faces masks of concentration. Everyone knew that either way, Gryffindor would win the Cup, but who would win the match?

The Snitch eluded capture for five minutes, during which time the entire stadium seemed to be holding its breath. The Slytherin was pulling ahead…

A red blur came out of nowhere and flew right in front of the Slytherin, causing him to jerk up in surprise. Caitlin sped on past him to catch the golden ball. It took the Gryffindors a moment to realize what had happened, but when they did, the stadium exploded in cheers. James was crying; flying towards Caitlin to give her an enormous hug. "Gryffindor wins the match and the Cup! 380-220 to Gryffindor!"

The Slytherins, however, were screaming about foul play. "That was a perfectly legal move!" James roared, "Anthony was going after a Bludger, and he got in the way! It's completely legal!"

Madame Hooch blew her whistle. "That _was _legal," she informed the Slytherins, who roared in protest, "Who's the referee?" she asked them sharply, "I am, and I say it's legal! If you've got a problem with it, bring it up with the World Quidditch Coordinators, I don't make the rules!"

"And Professor Dumbledore brings the Quidditch Cup out onto the field!" Sirius said, though he was now down on the pitch with James. "Gryffindor wins the final game of James' career! Three cheers for Caitlin Clark, the best Seeker in the school!"

Laughing, the Gryffindors obliged, while James handed the Cup over to Caitlin, who was lifted onto the shoulders of the Gryffindor supporters. "Party in the common room!" Sirius yelled into his megaphone. Before McGonagall yanked it away, he said, "Good luck finding a better commentator!"

The house elves sent excellent food from the kitchens to the common room, and the party lasted late into the night. A lot of the attention was focused on Anthony. "That was _brilliant_! Sarah said, slapping him on the back. "Found a loophole in the rulebook, eh?"

He smiled. "That's what I do."

At three a.m., McGonagall finally forced them to go to bed by threat of losing all of their house points. They grumpily went up to their dormitories, glad that they did not have classes the next day.

* * *

Lily and James called another meeting for the seventh years that Monday. The Slytherins were still sore from their defeat, and for the most part did not contribute to the conversation.

"So…here's the plan for graduation," James said, waving his wand. It appeared on the board. "Any add-ons or criticisms?"

The board was studied for a minute, and only a few minor changes were suggested—for the most part, everyone was happy with the arrangements.

"Ok…whoever you want to invite to graduation, you're going to have to send an invitation yourself. Just as long as they're not psychotic murderers or anything." Here, she cast a wary eye over the Slytherins. "Tell them to come the day before so we can take a head count. They can stay in Hogsmeade overnight." Lily said, "Send out as many invitations as you want. And Muggles are just as welcome as wizards, as long as they're family. I expect them to be treated accordingly." She sent a warning glance at the Slytherins again.

"The ceremony will be on June twenty-ninth, the last day before we go back to King's Cross. It'll be right after the Feast, and afterwards there will be a reception in the Great Hall, which everyone can go to, including the younger students. "We will be making a speech during that."

"There's going to be a dress rehearsal on June twenty-sixth, the Saturday before. That'll be a week after our N.E.W.T.s," James continued, "Hopefully that's ok with everyone." They all nodded. "Right—go ahead and go back to your common rooms, send out invitations this week so everyone can plan around it…" The other seventh years nodded again, got up, and left.

"That went well too," Laurie said happily.

"I can't wait until N.E.W.T.s are over," Lily said, putting her head in her hands, "They're a week from today…"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "You don't have to remind us, Lily."

"I hope we all do ok," she continued to fret, "How we do on these will decide our futures!"

"Lily," James said, slapping her on the back, "You'll do fine! You got the best grades on our O.W.L.s, remember? Even Remus got an E in History!"

Lily rolled her eyes and smiled. "You four are _insufferable_."

Sirius cocked his head. "What does insufferable mean?"

Lily just laughed and walked out with Sarah and Laurie.

* * *

The N.E.W.T.s were drawing steadily closer, and more and more people were having mental breakdowns. Lily was almost in tears about Transfiguration until James agreed to tutor her.

"Are you sure about this Animagi thing?" she asked him tearfully on Wednesday night. James rolled his eyes.

"Lily, rethink that question, and then think of who you're talking to." She thought a moment and laughed.

"Sorry, but my brain isn't thinking about stuff like that. It's a bit more focused on our exams on Monday and planning graduation."

James nodded. "Just worry about N.E.W.T.s, and after that you can worry about the ceremony, all right?"

Lily chuckled. "All right."

"So, Animagi…"

Two hours later, Lily was confident that she would pass her Transfiguration exam, and offered to help James with Charms as repayment. He just laughed her off—"I'll pass."

"Fine, but if you fail, don't come crying to me about it," she said huffily, and stalked to her dormitory. James stared after her bemusedly before muttering, "Girls."

* * *

Two days later, Remus announced after dinner that his friends were going with him to see his mother, who had fallen deathly ill the day before. Winking at the girls, the Marauders walked out into the Entrance Hall.

"The sun doesn't set for another two hours!" Laurie whispered, confused, "Where are they going?"

* * *

Instead of going straight out to the Willow themselves as they usually did, James, Sirius, and Peter dropped Remus off for appearance's sake and quickly went back up to the castle. Evading teachers and fellow students, they disappeared under James' Invisibility Cloak and took the passage to Honeyduke's cellar.

Half an hour later, after putting the correct amount of money on the cashier's desk, they snuck out the front door. They quickly took off towards the Shrieking Shack, knowing that they had about an hour before the moon rose.

The arrived with forty minutes to spare, and the Marauders quickly downed as much candy as they could before Remus began to transform.

Leaving the small pile of candy and large pile of wrappers laying on the floor, his three friends quickly transformed as well and waited for Remus. Then, just as they had planned, James, Sirius, and Peter began making as much noise as possible, hoping that were-Remus would follow suit. Luckily for them, he did.

Remus at least doubled the amount of noise his friends were making, and they continued to frighten the village until the werewolf got bored, and decided that he was hungry. They managed to stop Remus from harming himself too extensively, and then carefully walked through the Shack and out onto the Hogwarts grounds. What they saw there made James' heart stop.

A little boy who couldn't have been above second year was sitting across the grounds by the lake, throwing rocks into it moodily. Sirius barked once, and he and James tried to herd Remus back into the Willow; however, he was not to be restrained when there was human blood in the vicinity.

Sirius barked again at Peter, telling him to get the boy back inside. He scurried as a rat across the grounds, then transformed into a human directly behind the boy. Remus was intoxicated by the scent of two humans close by, but James and Sirius held him back at all costs. They didn't want to be responsible for two deaths…

* * *

Peter ran as fast as he could as a rat until he was standing right behind the boy. He was a Hufflepuff, and by the looks of him, a first year.

Transforming back into a human, and praying to every deity he could think of that James and Sirius could restrain Remus long enough for the boy to get inside and him to transform back, he tapped the boy on the shoulder. He jumped about a foot in the air, turned around, and gasped when he saw Peter.

"You…how did you…I didn't see…you're…Peter Pettigrew?" he sputtered.

"It doesn't matter how I got out here," Peter said. He was astounded at how commanding he sounded. "You should be inside!"

"I came out here to think, and just to look up at the moon. It's so pretty tonight," he said, pointing up at the full moon shining brightly. "I didn't think anyone else would be out here…"

"What's your name?"

"Ludo. Ludo Bagman."

"Right, Ludo, you need to get inside now."

"Why?" he inquired, confused.

"Which creatures live in the Forest and are extremely dangerous on full moon nights?"

His eyebrows furrowed in thought, and then his eyes became very wide. "Werew—"

"Right. Now, I don't know if there are any out tonight," Peter said, lying through his teeth, "but you don't want to take any chances, do you?"

Ludo shook his head, his eyes wide. "Right. So get off to your common room. And don't get caught by McGonagall," he warned. Ludo nodded and ran away at full speed, Peter thanking the gods that the Willow was not between the lake and the doors.

As soon as he saw the door close securely behind the Hufflepuff, Peter transformed back into a rat and scurried back to his friends. He squeaked to Sirius and James, who both immediately fell onto the ground, worn out from trying to keep Remus back. They had numerous scratches, many of them deep, but thankfully Peter could not see any bites.

* * *

_What is taking Peter so long? _James wondered angrily as he and Sirius attempted to hold Remus back from full-out charging the boy and Peter. He did not think he could keep this up much longer; he knew he had to avoid Remus' teeth at all costs, while trying to keep him at bay.

Usually, Remus was a bit more human with them there, but James didn't really know why he was going to berserk then. He supposed that the scent of two humans brought up bloodlust, but the boy and Peter were halfway across the grounds!

A few minutes later, or it could have been hours for all James knew, he heard a squeak from behind him. Hoping that it was Peter saying the boy was inside and safe, he collapsed on the ground, completely worn out.

Remus seemed to have calmed down out of disappointment, and angrily paced around until Sirius and James gathered enough strength to stand up and herd him back inside the tunnel. The three Animagi mostly dozed until Peter woke up and noticed the sun rising and Remus transforming back.

Waiting until he was fully human again, Peter transformed as well and shook Sirius and James awake. They groggily got up, saw Remus as a human again, and morphed back into humans. They then tried to move quickly; however, they couldn't because of the numerous and often deep gashes covering their bodies. Beginning to panic—they knew Madame Pomfrey would be there any minute—they resorted to looking around the Shack to find a hiding place. They eventually found a room with a large, and miraculously intact, wardrobe, and quickly hid in it.

Not a minute later, footsteps could be heard that announced the arrival of the matron, looking in each room for Remus. When she poked her head in the room where the Marauders were hiding, they held their breath until she withdrew it again and continued down the hallway.

Thinking that they would not have another chance, they quickly got out of the wardrobe and sneaked to the door and out to the hallway. They were almost to the tunnel leading back to Hogwarts when Madame Pomfrey's voice echoed down the hallway—

"Mr Potter, Mr Black, what are you doing here?"


	34. XXXIV

**XXXIV.**

The three Marauders stopped cold, and slowly turned around to face the indignant nurse. "Hide," Sirius said to Peter out of the corner of his mouth. He nodded and tiptoed into the nearest room. Madame Pomfrey did not see him.

"Come here!" she said sharply to the two Marauders, who limped slowly towards her. "What happened to you?"

"We were coming to see Remus," Sirius lied, "and didn't get to the knot on the tree fast enough."

She scrutinized them, eyes narrowed. "Almost all of the blood is dried."

"We also got on its bad side last night, after dropping him off here."

She still looked skeptical, but said nothing more than, "You'll need to come to the Infirmary to get cleaned up."

They nodded and walked with her down the hallway, pretending to not know where Remus was. After a few more minutes of "searching", they finally found him, still passed out cold in the middle of the floor. Madame Pomfrey gasped. _And for good reason._

"He hasn't looked this bad in years!" she said, astonished. James and Sirius shared a guilty glance—most of Remus' wounds had been inflicted by them, not by him.

Madame Pomfrey tutted, summoned a stretcher out of thin air, and carefully levitated Remus on to it. "His last full moon at Hogwarts…" she muttered, "…and his worst since your fifth year…" the three of them left the Shack and crossed the grounds, hoping nobody would see them. They slipped in a side door, and ended up directly outside the Hospital Wing.

"That has to be the most _useful _secret passageway in the school…" James muttered to Sirius, who nodded.

"Sit down there," Madame Pomfrey instructed James and Sirius, motioning to two empty beds, "I'll be there after I clean up Mr Lupin. Merlin…" she trailed off, and went to the storage cupboards lining the opposite wall. Pulling out a bottle of nasty-looking green goo, she began dabbing at Remus' wounds. Sirius and James held their breath, hoping that she wouldn't realize that many of them were _not _self-inflicted.

Madame Pomfrey's eyebrows furrowed. "These don't look like normal werewolf wounds…" James and Sirius glanced at each other warily, and quickly fell back on their pillows, feigning sleep.

* * *

Peter heard Madame Pomfrey hail his two friends, and Sirius instructed him to hide. Walking quietly into the nearest room and hiding behind something that might have once been a chair, he sat and waited until he heard three pairs of footsteps going towards the exit tunnel. He waited a few more minutes for good measure, then quickly followed hem out. He had a mission…

He walked into the Great Hall, looking for the Hufflepuff boy. He looked fine, if not a bit tired. "Meet me in the Entrance Hall after breakfast," he muttered to him as he passed. The boy looked confused, but nodded.

"Where are James and Sirius?" Lily asked Peter curiously from behind her huge Arithmancy book. He hesitated before answering—

"Later."

The girls looked intrigued but nodded. After breakfast, Peter found the boy waiting for him.

"What is it?" Ludo asked him curiously.

"You are sworn to secrecy about last night," Peter told him. He nodded slowly.

"Why, though?"

"Look, the reason isn't important. Did you get caught on your way back to your common room?"

"No…"

"Ok, so for all anyone knows, you were in your common room last night, and I was in mine. Neither of us was outside, where we were putting our lives and danger and breaking a major school rule. Can I trust you to keep this promise?"

"Yes, but…" Ludo said, confused, "Why were you out there in the first place?"

"It doesn't matter, I told you last night," Peter said dismissively.

He nodded slowly, and scurried off to find his friends. Peter sighed, hoping that the first year would keep to his word, and went in search of Lily, Sarah and Laurie.

* * *

When James awoke, he found Madame Pomfrey dabbing the same green substance on the worst of his gashes. He gritted his teeth—he definitely did _not _envy Remus…

"I'll let you two out later this afternoon," the matron said, though she looked as if she rather wouldn't, "I don't know about Mr Lupin, though…" three pairs of eyes glanced over at a curtained bed, where Remus' silhouette was visible. "He might have to postpone some of his N.E.W.T.s if he doesn't wake up soon…"

James and Sirius again shared a worried glance.

* * *

Peter found the girls in—where else?—the library, and practically dragged them up to the Infirmary, ignoring their questions until they were directly outside of it.

"What the bloody hell are you dragging us up here for?" Sarah asked angrily.

"You wanted to know where James and Sirius are…"

"Oh Merlin," Lily said, grabbing for the wall, "Remus didn't…last night…!"

"No, they just got scratched up quite a bit. Not what you're thinking," he assured them. They sighed in relief, and walked into the ward, where they were met with three occupied beds and an irate matron. "What are you doing here?" she asked accusingly.

"Visiting our friends, what else?" Laurie said, raising her eyebrows and walking towards James and Sirius.

"Fine…" she walked into her personal quarters and slammed the door. Lily cast a quick Muffliato spell at it, and they sat down on chairs around James' and Sirius' beds.

"What happened?" Sarah asked, eyeing a large scratch down Sirius' cheek.

"We told Madame Pomfrey that it was the Willow, but it was actually Remus," James explained in an undertone, "We were going out onto the grounds, and there was a little boy over by the lake."

The girls gasped. "Is he all right?"

"Of course he is, otherwise Remus would be going home on the train today, wouldn't he?"

"How did you keep Remus from attacking him?" Laurie asked, wide-eyed.

"Peter ran over as a rat and got him back inside," James explained, "while we kept Remus occupied. Nothing serious, no bites or anything," he added quickly at the girls' frightened faces.

"I swore the boy to secrecy. I won't tell anyone he was out if he doesn't tell anyone I was." Peter piped up.

Sirius nodded in approval. "Good thinking."

* * *

A small groan was heard from a corner of the room an hour later. Peter, Lily, Sarah and Laurie ran over and hesitantly pulled back the curtains.

"Peter…" Remus croaked. His voice was barely above a whisper, "What happened last night? Where are James and Sirius? Why am I scratched up more than usual?"

"James and Sirius are in the beds next to you," Lily began, and had to put a restraining hand on his shoulder to keep him from sitting up in alarm, "You just had a rough night, and they got a bit scratched up from trying to restrain you."

"I didn't b—"

"No bites." He relaxed in relief.

"I'll get Madame Pomfrey, she'll want to know that you've woken up," Laurie volunteered, and hurried over to the matron's quarters, disabling the charm as she went.

"Oh good, Lupin, you're awake!" the matron said, busting over. His four friends moved away quickly for her. "I was saying to your two friends—if you hadn't woken up in a timely manner, you'd have had to make up some of your N.E.W.T.s!"

He smiled, "I don't want that. I'm out of here Monday morning before breakfast."

"You'd better wish Godspeed to these wounds then," she muttered, "some of them are pretty bad. And I swear that some were _not _made by a werewolf…"

His four friends shared worried glances behind her back. "But what would it have been?" Sarah asked.

"That's the question…you're sure you didn't get out last night, Mr Lupin?"

"I can't be sure of anything, but would I be in the Shack if I had?"

Madame Pomfrey nodded distractedly. "Just as long as nobody turns up missing…"

* * *

Remus asked Peter to bring him all of his books, as did James and Sirius. That Saturday was spent studying for the looming N.E.W.T.s. Madame Pomfrey did not bother them, except to give James, Sirius, and Remus nasty-smelling orange potions every few hours.

As promised, James and Sirius were let out that evening, their scratches deemed healed enough for them to walk around freely. The six friends only left Remus for the night when Madame Pomfrey kicked them out at ten o'clock. The door was slammed shut in their faces as they reassured him that they would be back the next morning with breakfast.

"Don't tell Remus about what really happened last night," Sirius said as soon as the door was closed, "He'd blow the roof, after everything that's happened this year…"

The others nodded. "He can believe that he just had a bad night. He doesn't need to know that he almost got away."

The next morning, they brought Remus some breakfast from the Great Hall as promised. That Sunday was also spent studying, especially for History and Herbology, which they had the next day. Before they were kicked out once again, they made Madame Pomfrey promise that she would release Remus the following morning. She grudgingly did.

* * *

That night, not many seventh years got much sleep. Even after Lily's insistence at eleven that they turn in, they did not get to sleep until around two, when they fell asleep on their books. Sarah woke up suddenly when there was movement in the common room around them, and realized that it was seven-thirty.

Instantly awake, she woke her friends by yelling in their ears, "Breakfast ends in half an hour!"

Her friends woke up, panicking, and sprinted up to the Hospital Wing to collect Remus. Ten minutes later, they were sitting at the Gryffindor table cramming for their first exam, and in Remus' case drinking large amounts of coffee. They were all ushered out into the Entrance Hall a bit later, where eighty very nervous people waited to be told what to do.

"Fifth years will go first," McGonagall informed them, "After your exam, the seventh years will sit theirs. Just follow the schedules that you were given last week.

"When you are not testing, you are free to go about your day and study, but be sure that you are here and ready to go at your appointed time."

The fifth years looked very nervous now, and the seventh years quickly scattered to do some last minute cramming.

"History starts at nine-fifteen," Lily said, consulting her schedule, "Then Herbology isn't until one-thirty. History is an hour long, and so is the Herbology written. And then we have the practical, which is in alphabetical order…"

"Bloody hell, Lily, let's just work on passing History first!"

* * *

Nine-fifteen came all too quickly, and the forty seventh years were standing in the Entrance Hall, unnaturally quiet. Finally, McGonagall ushered them into the Hall, and they were all seated quickly, with the tests upside-down in front of them. When the examiner flipped over the enormous hourglass, they turned over their tests and read the first few questions. The Marauders all stifled chuckles as question one:

"_Who was the first Animagus, when did he live, and what did he transform into?"_

An hour later, the seventh years were released. They were all complaining about the exam.

"What the bloody hell was number twenty-nine asking?"

"That was impossible—half of those we haven't covered!"

"So…" Sarah said to the Marauders in an undertone, "How did you like number one?"

"Oh, that was probably the hardest question on the test," James said with a perfectly straight face. "Impossible."

The Herbology written test went fairly well compared to History, and they were ushered out once again so that the Great Hall could be prepared for the practical. Everyone did well on that except for Snape.

The examiners told them that they had to get five seeds out of the Puffapod, repot two Mandrakes, and successfully tame a Devil's Snare. Because of the great amount of room required, only eight people were in the room at a given time.

During his exam, Snape ran out of the Hall screaming about killer plants, leaving the waiting examinees roaring with laughter.

Transfiguration and Astronomy on Tuesday were not too bad—"Number fifteen was awesome! 'How does one go about becoming an Animagus?'" Sirius remarked, laughing.

On Wednesday they only had one test in the afternoon due to the Astronomy exam at midnight the previous night—Potions. Lily walked out of the written grinning, but Peter was nearly in tears. "I failed it, I know I did!"

"Peter, it doesn't matter if you failed or not! I doubt the owners of Honeydukes are going to care much about your Potions grade if you're going to work as a cashier!"

The remaining afternoon was spent cheering Peter up and studying for Charms and Care of Magical Creatures for Thursday. "Just four more…" Lily kept muttering to herself.

"Lily, could you shut up?" Sarah asked her after about half an hour of this. She turned red to match her hair.

"Sorry."

* * *

Lily did perfectly on the Charms exam, but the others were not so sure. "The questions were easy enough, but _why _did we have to explain every bloody spell we used in the practical?" James ranted during the lag time before Care of Magical Creatures.

"It wasn't that difficult…" Lily tried to say.

"Oh yes, Miss Charms Queen didn't think it was hard," Sirius said sarcastically, "Hardly much to go by, eh?"

That afternoon's exam was relatively easy—the practical was to pat a Hippogriff without getting attacked, among other things. There were only five students testing at a time due to lack of Hippogriffs.

"Just Defense and Arithmancy left," Lily said, stretching out on a chair in the common room. James stuck his tongue out at her. What?"

"We've only got one test left."

"So how are you going to kill time while we take Arithmancy?"

They shared an evil grin. "Oh, we'll think of something."

* * *

All seven of them were sure that they passed Defense with at least an E, if not an O. After the girls went off to Arithmancy, the boys, unusually, congregated in the library of their own free will. Many people were astonished—this did not happen very often.

"So…" James aid, "We've…" And the most feared conversation n Hogwarts history began.

"Yes! Laurie said, pumping the air with her fist after Arithmancy. "We're _free_!"

The other fifth and seventh years were thinking along the same lines, and were a lot more animated than they had been in a long time.

"Where are the guys?" Sarah asked suddenly.

"I dunno," Lily said, "Maybe they're down in the kitchens."

But when they inquired of the house elves whether they had been down recently, they received a negative answer. After sitting in the common room for an hour playing chess and celebrating their freedom, the girls finally saw the Marauders walk in, each carrying an armful of books. All of the Gryffindors were staring at them.

After dropping the books off in the dormitory, the Marauders came back down again and sat next to the girls.

"How does it feel being done with school?" Sirius asked.

"Really good, actually."

"Where have you been?" Lily asked accusingly.

"Library," they answered simultaneously.

"…Why?"

"To check out books, duh. If you weren't blind, you would have seen us walk in with twenty of them." James mocked.

"Why were you checking out books?"

The boys just grinned mysteriously and didn't answer…

* * *

On the twenty-sixth, as promised, there was a graduation dress rehearsal, which was completely chaotic for the first fifteen minutes. After everyone finally calmed down, Lily took charge.

"Dumbledore will be in front of the crowd with his back to the lake, and the four house heads will be on either side of him. When Dumbledore gives his cue, we'll walk up, put the boats in the lake, and then sit down. You'll go back up when your name is called, with or without your parents, shake hands with all five, collect your diploma, and stand off to either side. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs will be on the left as you're facing the lake, and the Ravenclaws and Slytherins on the right. You'll be called in alphabetical order, but it would be best for you to stand by height, the twenty shortest in front of the taller ones. That way, the audience can see everyone. There will be a riser for the people in the back to stand on."

After running through the ceremony five times and figuring out who would stand in front and who behind, Lily was confident that all would go smoothly on the twenty-ninth. "Don't mess it up," she warned, glaring at the Slytherins and Marauders in particular.


	35. XXXV

**XXXV.**

The entire school noticed that the Marauders were not around as much in the general school as much as they were seen in the Gryffindor common room or the library. Madame Pince seemed about to have an aneurysm from seeing the Marauders in such close proximity to her precious books, but they frankly did not care.

Nobody saw the Marauders after dinner on June twenty-seventh at all, not even Lily and her friends. The whole school was therefore extremely apprehensive about what would happen the next day, and had a perfect right to be. Seeing the Marauders was better than not seeing them, but knowing that they were up to something…

The next morning proved how right they were.

The castle had a very odd feeling about it on the morning of June twenty-eighth. The first thing the Hogwarts residents noticed when they woke up was that it was raining inside the castle, even though it was a perfectly clear day outside. The second thing they saw was that everyone who had passed through any sort of door was a random color, ranging from snow white to charcoal black, with every color of the spectrum in between—skin, hair, clothes, and all. Every time a person passed through a doorway, he changed color.

The unlucky fellows that needed desperately to use the bathroom were out of luck. It became very apparent that certain someones—and everyone knew who had done it—had put Impervious Charms on all of the toilets.

The school turned completely pitch black at irregular times, and no number of Lumos charms could penetrate the darkness; not even Dumbledore could bring light to the school.

Conversations between students were also very interesting, as the food had apparently been charmed. One conversation went something like this:

"Who –_raspberry- _bloody hell did this?"

"-_Foghorn- _dunno, but –_foghorn- _think it's really annoying."

"_-Foghorn- _bet it was –_raspberry- _Marauders. It is their last year at Hogwarts, after all."

"But this is annoying! Not to mention that –_foghorn-_'m pink! Seriously!"

"This is –_belch- _brilliant prank, though. –_Raspberry- _Marauders have to have –_belch- _lot of guts to do all this!"

Certain areas on the floor seemed to be charmed so that if some unfortunate person stepped on them, they would be frozen there for a good five minutes, and nothing and nobody could move them.

If anyone was in one spot for more than two minutes—excluding mealtimes, which seemed to be extended to half an hour—they would turn into a chicken, to the amusement of many. Those who thought that it would be safe to stand in one spot to evade the pranks were out of luck.

The killer for many of the students was that no matter how hard they tried, they could not get outside. As it was a very beautiful day, many people were irritated the most by this.

So, all in all, Hogwarts was in an official state of chaos. Every single one of the hundreds of Hogwarts residents with half a brain cell knew who had done it, but none of the teachers but McGonagall tried to do anything about it.

She held the Marauders back after lunch, and began ranting until a minute and a half had gone by. Then Sirius said, "Minnie, we might want to move around –_belch- _bit, because we're going to turn into chickens in about," he checked his watch, "twenty seconds."

McGonagall gave a roar of rage and walked out of the Great Hall and up the spiral staircase. The Marauders followed her.

"Minerva," Dumbledore said up in his office, "Did you really expect them to leave Hogwarts without leaving their mark on –_raspberry- _school?"

"No, but this…"

Dumbledore attempted to reason with her—"It is true that they have never done something on this grand of _–belch- _scale, but _–foghorn-_ admit that_ -foghorn- _was not surprised when this happened."

"At least let _–foghorn-_ give…"

"_-foghorn- _will not allow you to take any points from Gryffindor house, and _–foghorn- _will not allow you to give _–raspberry- _Marauders detention." Here five jaws hit the floor.

"You're…not…serious, Professor?" James asked, astonished.

"_-foghorn- _am perfectly serious, Mr Potter," the Headmaster said cheerfully, "Every graduating class leaves something for them to be remembered by, and yours is just quite _–belch- _bit more spectacular than others'." McGonagall looked livid.

Dumbledore ignored her, and cheerfully added, "And _–foghorn- _think that one hundred points shall be awarded to Gryffindor house for _-raspberry- _most spectacular prank Hogwarts has ever seen, and quite possibly ever _will _see."

The Marauders looked as if Christmas had come six months early, but the Gryffindor Head had a different opinion. "How can you encourage them?" she asked Dumbledore angrily.

"Minerva, this will be _–raspberry- _last prank that they will ever pull at Hogwarts," he explained patiently, "and we both know that they will have to grow up far too quickly once they graduate."

"Yes, but…"

"There are no 'buts', _-foghorn- _have awarded Gryffindor _–raspberry- _points, and there is nothing you can do about it," he turned to the Marauders for one last question before he dismissed them, "_-foghorn-_'m assuming that this will wear off by tomorrow?"

"Of course!"

* * *

The next morning, Dumbledore announced that the Leaving Feast would be at five-thirty that evening, which would be followed by the seventh years' graduation. "After that," he added, "there will be a party of sorts in here, which everyone is invited to. That should be at around nine o'clock. I believe that our Head Girl and Boy will be speaking at that," they nodded, "So… early feast, late party, ceremony in between! If you want to attend the graduation ceremony, please inform your Head of House."

As the chatter built up after the Headmaster's announcement, Frank asked James, "What are you going to say in your speeches?"

"Oh, this and that."

* * *

The last day of Hogwarts life for the Marauders was rather solemn. After using all morning and a big chunk of the afternoon to clean out their dorm of anything they may have forgotten, they sat under their favorite tree by the lake.

"We're never going to be able to sit here again," Sirius commented, "We'll be off in the real world, doing whatever adults do all day. We won't have our special tree. We marked it, remember?" He traced an engraving on the middle of the trunk, not glaringly obvious, but not exactly subtle either, that read:

"May 1972  
JP, SB, RL, PP  
Hogwarts Marauders  
Together Forever  
Our Friendship Will Never Die"

James chuckled, "We were so innocent in first year…"

"Our lives are going to be so different once we're out of school," Remus said, "I mean, you guys will have lives, and paying jobs. But me…" he shook his head and put it in his hands, "I don't know _what _I'm going to do…"

"Remus, you'll be fine," Peter assured his friend, "We'll always be here for you."

It took the other three Marauders a moment to realize that tears were streaming down Remus' face. He had cried three times in the time that they had known him—when they discovered his secret in second year, when they became Animagi for him in fifth, and earlier that year with Frank. It took them another moment to realize that they were tears of happiness.

"You have no idea how much you three mean to me," he said, "You, and Lily, and Sarah, and Laurie…I don't know what I'd do without you."

The other the Marauder embraced Remus in a group hug. "Remus, we'll never leave you," Sirius promised, "We may not be able to emphasize completely, but we can come damn close."

They sat under their tree until the Feast began, when they regretfully walked back up to the castle, leaving many happy memories behind.

* * *

"How many did Dumbledore say were coming?" Lily asked James for at least the hundredth time.

"He said that there were a hundred coming from outside of Hogwarts, and so far fifty coming from inside. So, about a hundred and fifty."

"Have we got the chairs set up?" she continued to fret.

"We're going to eat dinner in a twenty-minute span, make sure everything's set up correctly by the lake, then get the seventh years into their common rooms to change and be outside by seven o'clock. Everyone will be there by seven-thirty."

Lily nodded, finally confident that all would go smoothly. They left their friends a few minutes later to make sure everything was in order outside. By the time six o'clock rolled around, the two head students were satisfied that everything was in order, and walked back into the Great Hall and the feasting students. "All seventh years need to be outside in our appointed spot by seven o'clock. Any younger students who wish to attend our graduation should have already told their Head of House, but in case you haven't please come and tell James immediately," Lily announced in a Sonorified voice. "If you have any questions, please ask James within the next ten minutes."

Most of the seventh year girls immediately got up and left for their separate dormitories, Lily included. James stayed behind to accept any last minute attendees and questions, and gave the number of extras to Dumbledore. He promised that the appropriate number of chairs would be set up.

Lily was outside and waiting for the rest of her classmates fifteen minutes before seven. Many of the boys were already situated, wearing varying styles of dress robes. James was the last boy to come outside. It was obvious that he had spent quite a while trying to gel his hair down, but it was no use.

"All right, do you all have the little boats we told you to order from Hogsmeade?" They all nodded and held them up. "Excellent—Dumbledore will supply candles."

The next half-hour was spent watching the family and friends come in from Hogsmeade. All of the teachers and some of the younger students showed up as well. Dumbledore brought them candles right before seven-thirty, so they had just enough time to light them before Dumbledore began speaking at the front of the crowd.

"Thank you for coming here today," he said to them, "This is one of the most independent classes that I have ever known. To top it of, the class of 1978 also includes four of the best pranksters Hogwarts has ever seen—the Marauders." There was some muttering from those assembled, and the Headmaster smiled. "I see that your reputation precedes you," he said to the four, who grinned and waved at the group.

"On a slightly related note, this class also includes James Potter and Lily Evans." Now, the crowd muttered even more. "And I will tell you that they are just as functional as they were before Christmas, and remain our Head Boy and Girl."

McGonagall then stood up and took over for a moment. "In being the Marauders' Head of House for the past seven years and each of these students' Transfiguration professor, I'll say that almost all of the time, they were quite a handful. The Marauders are, however, four of the closest friends that I have ever taught. They've gone through more hardships than I think any other group of friends has, yet I've never seen anyone as tight-knit as they are. This entire class is so close together in comparison to others. It seems that a bit of good has come out of this war after all."

Dumbledore took the stage again, and said, "This class, after everything they have been through together, picked a very fitting motto—"We must cry in order to grow, we must fail in order to know. Sometimes our vision only clears after our eyes are washed away with tears." Miss Evans had the bright idea for each seventh year to write the names of one or more people that they have loved and lost on a slip of paper, put it on a boat with a candle atop it, and send it across the lake here. This, I think, commemorates the dead rather fitfully."

The seventh years, taking the cue, began walking in the gap between the chairs, holding the small boats with the lit candles on them. The watching crowd was silent in reverence for the young adults who had seen far too much destruction in their lives—most knew that almost all of them had put at least one close family member or friend down on the small, rolled up piece of paper that held so much significance.

Once this solemn ceremony was over and the boats were slowly drifting across the lake, the students sat down in the forty saved chairs at the front.

"I will now call up the students in alphabetical order to come receive their Hogwarts diplomas. Please hold your applause until the final name is called," Dumbledore requested, "Rachelle Allen."

The pretty Hufflepuff walked up with her father to the Heads. Shaking their hands, she took her diploma and stood to the right of them. Her father took his seat next to someone who looked like her little brother.

When Sirius walked up, most expected him to go alone; therefore, they were all surprised when he walked up with two very alive and very happy parents that were not his.

Remus Lupin smiled as his parents walked up with one of his best friends. It had been his idea to ask his parents to go up with James and Sirius so they did not have to go alone…the Lupins were smiling as Sirius took his place next to Rachelle.

When Lily's name was called, she walked up proudly with Mr and Mrs Kellison. Despite Dumbledore's request, the crowd cheered loudly for her as she took her diploma. Lily blushed a bit but stood in front of Sirius and next to Heather.

Many people found it sad that at least half of the class did not go up with both of their own parents, or even with one. Remus was one of the lucky few who had both parents available.

Those who knew were crying with happiness for him, and the heads gave him warm smiles as he shook their hands. When he stood next to Frank, he saw his parents and older sister beam at him tearfully from the crowd.

James walked up with the Lupins as well, and he also received smiles from the Heads and cheers from the crowd. He grinned cheekily at them and stood next to Remus.

After the last two students had gone—Laurie with her mother and a Slytherin girl alone—Dumbledore spread his hands wide towards the forty proudly standing adults. "I give you," he said, eyes twinkling, "the Hogwarts class of 1978!"

The crowd cheered for at lest two or three minutes. During this time, filled with so much meaning, the graduates stood proudly in front of them, heads held high. They knew that they had been strong enough to survive Hogwarts, and were now brave enough to set foot into an unreliable and completely foreign world that none of the adults wanted them to see.

After the cheering finally died down, Dumbledore called for pictures. Those who had brought cameras immediately took them out and began snapping pictures of the forty graduates and five heads together.

Eventually they broke up into groups. The Lupins and Pettigrews took multiple pictures of the Marauders, and the Kellisons and Mrs Victonia of the girls. Then the four families all took pictures of the seven together in various poses—Sirius had to be yelled at for crossing his eyes in every picture.

Eventually the girls dispersed to find their friends from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, and Frank got some pictures with the Marauders as well.

* * *

At nine o'clock, the large group began walking up to the castle in the gathering twilight. Once the seventh years and their parents reached the Great Hall, the Muggles looking around in awe, they saw that the younger students were already there. Dumbledore smiled and said, "Party your hearts out!"

Everyone cheered and happily dug into the supplied food—apparently they had incredible metabolism.

At around nine-thirty, after mingling quite a bit and talking with their friends, James and Lily walked up to where the staff table normally was. The Hall was quiet in seconds.

"It's great to have so much power like that," James commented, "Makes me feel like Minnie though." Many students laughed.

"Huzzah for Gryffindor!" Sirius yelled out randomly. Everybody but the Slytherins laughed.

"Yes, I think our winning the House Cup by two hundred points merits recognition," James acknowledged. "You do realize that after we leave tomorrow, there won't be any Marauders at Hogwarts. And there won't be the big Potter-Evans feuds like there were for six and a half years; those are long gone." Laughter.

"I want to say something that dear Minnie has blackmailed me and my friends into keeping quiet about," James said, his eyes twinkling and the corners of his mouth tugging up into a smile. "I'm assuming all you students remember April first, the teddy bear mayhem day…" All of the students nodded, not quick to forget that day. "When Professor Dumbledore held us back after lunch, he _accidentally _disclosed a tidbit of information that totally goes against everything that you thought you knew about dear Minnie. "You see, she was…"

"Potter!" McGonagall called out from the crowd, red-faced, but nothing could stop him.

"…a prankster back in the day."

The students' reaction was priceless—there was no other way to describe it. Eyes wide as galleons and jaws hitting the floor, every student and alumni of Hogwarts turned to stare at the Transfiguration professor. She glared murderously at James, who grinned and waited for the chatter to finally die down. Then he started off their speech…

"I don't know if you all realize how important Hogwarts is to your lives," he said, becoming rather serious, his eyes scanning the crowd. "I think you all may take this for granted. It's very important that you all learn exactly how important it is to your lives some time during your Hogwarts career.

"Some people have known that they were lucky from the beginning, when they got their letter," James continued, "Others have known from the day they were born that they would be coming here. I'm guilty of that myself," he chuckled, "But I've definitely come to appreciate Hogwarts, and life in general, a lot more now, and so has Lily." Everyone was now looking at them expectantly, and they both laughed.

"You know where this is going, don't you?" Lily asked, grinning. They nodded sheepishly. "Well, you're actually partway right, but that's not our entire speech. We'll bore our fellow Gryffindors to death."

The Gryffindors laughed. "So…do we want the boring or interesting stuff first?"

He received a mixed answer. "All right…you!" he pointed at none other than Ludo Bagman, who stared at him, wide-eyed, "Which do you want?"

"Why don't we do the boring stuff first, so it can end on an interesting note?" James beamed at him.

"I like your logic."

"So, the boring stuff first…Hogwarts is more of a privilege than a given thing," Lily said, scanning the crowd. "You have no idea how lucky you are to be here at, possibly, the most prestigious school of magic in the world. Most people don't have that privilege. Some people, myself included, were incredibly surprised when they got their letter."

"Do not take _anything _for granted," James continued where Lily had left off, "Food, shelter, a loving family, your friends even…I know someone who never had a true friend before he came to Hogwarts. No single person to confide with, no one to whisper with at three in the morning when your mum's screaming at you to go to sleep…"

"We voted on our class motto—'We must cry in order to grow, we must fail in order to know. Sometimes our vision only clears after our eyes are washed away with tears'—with thirty people for it. The other top two—"Dancing to the beat of our own drums' and 'Friends are the angels that pick us up when our wings don't quite remember how to fly'—split the other ten votes between them."

"I think all three of these mottoes would be appropriate. "We're definitely a bit more strange—insane, if you will—than other classes. But, I mean, we Marauders are a part of it—what did you expect?" Laughter.

"McGonagall said outside that we are a tight-knit class. I agree with her—for the most part anyway. Three-quarters of us are tight-knit, but the other quarter decided to be far too distant to actually become friends." He glanced over at the Slytherins, "I guess some feuds can never be broken. But if they could, maybe this war would finally be over. And who doesn't want that?"

Lily waited a moment to let it sink in before saying, "I think that sufficiently covers the 'boring' part, don't you think?" An emphatic "_Yes!_" answered her question. "Right. So, I guess this is the part you've been waiting for since—what?—January?" The students nodded, "Well, we're not going to elaborate much on the particulars. I'm sure many of you already know what happened." Her eyes scanned over the Gryffindors, but came to rest on particular Slytherin adults. "We wouldn't want to bore you."

They then went into an overview of what happened. Most of the assembled people were an excellent audience—gasping at all the right places, many of the females crying…many of the Slytherins also looked very shocked. _Maybe we've turned some of them to the good side…_

"If you want more details, you're out of luck," Lily said after they had finished their narrative, "Again, I believe that we'd be boring too many people." Again, her eyes flashed to the Slytherins.

"We were incredibly lucky that we got out of that alive and sane. I think that if Dumbledore had waited another week, I would have cracked. It was pure luck that we're able to recount these events to you today.

"But…not everyone has luck like we do. Some people don't have much luck at all." Her eyes traveled over the crowd, lingering a second on Remus. "For those people who probably wouldn't survive our ordeal, I want to stop it from ever happening again. I want to make a difference."

Lily began to step off of into the crowd, which was cheering so loudly that nothing else could be heard. James, however, grabbed Lily's hand and spun her around. Before she could ask what he was doing, he had gotten down in front of her and silently opened a small velvet box.

Lily's eyes were as wide as galleons. The audience, not quite sure what was going on, had fallen silent. Then, Lily screamed, pulled James up, and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

When the crowd finally got a glance of the box that James was still holding, and what was inside of it, they again started to cheer—to cheer for the two adults that were so obviously in love, that had been through so much, and that would, from that point on, spend their lives together.

What none of them knew was how short these two lives would be, and how much they would change the world…

* * *

THE END

* * *

_In case you're wondering about the food, they spiked it so that every time somone would have said the word "a" they would belch, "the" they would blow a raspberry, and either "I" or "me" would sound like a foghorn._


End file.
